Chapter 4 - THE SECRET IN THE BROWN FOLDER
The folder contained twenty-seven pages.
Elena knew every one by heart.
A hospital admission record.
A birth certificate amendment.
Bank transfers.
A private adoption arrangement.
And photographs of a child named Isabella Hart.
Eleven years old.
Living with a foster family near Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
The records suggested Isabella had been born at St. Agnes Maternity Center.
The same day Elena delivered her daughter.
The same time.
The same blood type.
The same identifying medical details.
Elena had hired an investigator.
A former federal agent named Nathan Cole.
He'd spent weeks tracing the records.
Then called her with the words she'd been afraid to hope for.
“Elena, I think we found her.”
She'd cried for an hour.
Then asked the question that mattered most.
“Is she safe?”
Nathan hesitated.
“She's alive.”
Elena closed her eyes.
May you like
It wasn't the same answer.
And that terrified her.
