Chapter 5 - THE FATHER-IN-LAW WHO SOLD A CHILD
Richard Vale had never approved of me.
He tolerated my marriage to Grace because he believed it gave him access to the Blackwell organization.
He wanted influence.
Contracts.
Control.
And when Grace began distancing herself from both our families' criminal dealings, Richard became furious.
Teresa explained that Grace had gone into premature labor after a confrontation with her father.
The twins were delivered by emergency cesarean section.
Grace suffered catastrophic complications.
She died shortly afterward.
But both babies survived.
Richard arranged for one infant to be transferred under a false medical identity.
The child was eventually placed with Hannah Vale.
I stared at Teresa.
"Who was Hannah?"
She swallowed.
"Richard's daughter."
I froze.
"Grace was his only child."
Teresa shook her head.
"His only acknowledged child."
Hannah was born from an affair years earlier.
Richard had kept her existence secret.
She worked as a nurse's aide at a private medical facility.
When he needed someone to hide the second baby, he chose her.
But Hannah hadn't known the full truth at first.
She believed the infant had been abandoned.
She raised Emma as her own daughter.
Then, years later, she discovered documents connecting Emma to Grace.
She began asking questions.
And Richard's associates began watching her.
I looked at Evelyn.
"Richard's dead."
"Yes," she said.
"But whoever helped him may still be alive."
I thought of Emma.
Her fear.
The rabbit.
May you like
The warning about disappearing.
"Then we find them."
