Chapter 3 - WHY THEY CALLED HER MOM
Teresa Bell lived in Milwaukee.
Roman found her in seven hours.
Convincing her to speak took two days.
She refused to enter the Voss estate.
Pamela respected her instantly.
They met inside an attorney’s office.
Neutral ground.
Teresa was fifty-four.
Gray streak in her dark hair.
Hands that shook when Roman entered.
“I’m not here to hurt you,” he said.
She laughed bitterly.
“Men like you always say that.”
Roman took it without argument.
Pamela noticed.
Teresa looked at her.
Then began crying.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
Pamela froze.
“You know me?”
“I know your face.”
“How?”
Teresa opened her bag.
Removed a folded photograph.
Pamela stared.
It was her hospital intake photograph.
Taken when she was seven months pregnant.
She remembered complaining because the nurse needed an image attached to some maternity assistance paperwork.
“How did you get that?”
Teresa told them.
Six weeks earlier, an envelope from Julian Kane’s office had been delivered accidentally with routine guardianship documents.
Inside:
Copies of hospital records.
A photograph of Pamela.
Three infant identification numbers.
And a payment schedule to an adoption intermediary.
Teresa recognized the infant numbers because they matched medical records she had been organizing for Roman’s pediatrician.
“I knew something was wrong.”
“Why didn’t you tell Roman?”
Teresa looked at him.
Fear.
Simple.
“I tried.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
“How?”
“I told Julian.”
He closed his eyes briefly.
Wrong person.
“He said the documents were related to a lawsuit.”
Teresa did not believe him.
So she photographed them.
Then tried finding Pamela online.
Pamela barely used social media.
Old address.
Disconnected phone.
Nothing.
Teresa contacted a legal-aid organization anonymously.
Before they could answer, Julian accused her of stealing Celeste’s jewelry.
Roman interrupted.
“There was no missing jewelry.”
“I know that now.”
He looked sick.
Teresa continued.
Julian offered her money.
She refused.
Then two men appeared outside her apartment.
She left Chicago.
Pamela whispered:
“But the children.”
Teresa looked at her.
That was the question.
“Why do they call me Mom?”
Teresa wiped her eyes.
“I showed them your picture.”
Roman stared.
“What?”
“Not once.”
She looked ashamed.
“Many times.”
The babies were around eleven months old then.
Beginning to imitate sounds.
Teresa would hold Pamela’s picture near them.
“This is Mama Pamela.”
Again.
Again.
Again.
Pamela covered her mouth.
“Why?”
“Because I thought if I disappeared before finding you…”
Teresa’s voice broke.
“…maybe somebody would notice if the babies reacted to your face.”
It was not science.
Not proof.
But it explained the word.
They had not remembered Pamela from birth.
They had learned her face from a photograph.
Learned the label.
Then, in Bella Rosa, the photograph became a living woman.
Roman leaned back.
All the mystery inside that single word became suddenly simple.
And somehow more devastating.
“They weren't recognizing a memory,” Pamela whispered.
Teresa shook her head.
“They were recognizing you.”
Pamela cried.
Roman looked toward the floor.
Teresa continued:
“Mia always reacted the strongest.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
Then she remembered something.
“Your voice.”
Pamela looked up.
“What?”
“The paperwork included a hospital social-work video.”
Pamela’s stomach tightened.
A short clip filmed when she was admitted.
Pamela talking about names.
“I want Theo because my grandfather was Theodore. Elias because my father hated his own name, so I’m stealing the middle one he actually liked. And Mia because I’ve loved that name since I was twelve.”
Teresa had played it.
The babies had heard Pamela’s voice repeatedly.
Roman stared.
“Julian had that video.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Roman did.
Because Julian had access to more than adoption documents.
He had access to Pamela’s complete maternity file.
Teresa placed one more item on the table.
A copy of an invoice.
ST. ANSELM MATERNAL SERVICES
Payment received:
$300,000.
Payer:
Kane Family Placement Trust.
Roman stared.
“That trust uses my money.”
Pamela looked at him.
“You paid the hospital directly?”
“No.”
“Julian did.”
“Yes.”
Roman’s face hardened.
Seven hundred eighty thousand dollars left his account.
Only part went to medical care.
Where had the rest gone?
Teresa whispered:
“There are other babies.”
Everyone became still.
“What?”
She opened her phone.
“I found three more payment codes in Julian’s paperwork.”
Different wealthy adoptive families.
Same hospital.
Same administrator.
Same attorney network.
Pamela looked at Roman.
This had stopped being only about her.
Roman understood.
And for the first time since the investigation began, the thing in his eyes was not fear of losing his children.
It was rage.
Pamela pointed at him.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“What?”
“I know that face.”
“You have known me three days.”
“I know enough.”
He said nothing.
“You do not make anyone disappear.”
Teresa looked between them.
Roman almost seemed offended.
Pamela continued:
“If these people stole babies, there are mothers who still don’t know.”
That landed.
“If you kill the people who know where the records are, you bury those families twice.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
Then relaxed slightly.
“What do you want?”
“The truth.”
“And after?”
“Consequences.”
He looked at her.
“Legal ones?”
“Yes.”
“That sounds unsatisfying.”
“It sounds useful.”
Teresa almost smiled.
Roman finally nodded.
“Fine.”
Pamela frowned.
“Fine?”
“Donovan says that is what people say when they lose arguments politely.”
From the hall, Donovan called:
“I said no such thing.”
Roman almost smiled.
May you like
For the first time, Pamela did too.
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