CHAPTER 7 — The Child They Could Never Find
The investigation th
at everyone thought was over had only just begun.
Three days after Richard's arrest, Detective Mason returned to the Astoria estate carrying a weathered evidence box that had been hidden inside an abandoned courthouse warehouse for nearly thirty years.
Inside were faded hospital records.
A tiny silver bracelet.
A baby's knitted blanket.
And one final videotape.
The room held its breath as the tape began to play.
The grainy security footage showed two newborns being carried out of the maternity ward on the same stormy night.
One was the little girl who had grown up to become Lily.
The second...
Was a baby boy.
Then the screen froze on the face of the woman carrying him.
Eleanor gasped.
"I know her..."
It wasn't a stranger.
It was her own younger sister, Victoria.
The woman Eleanor had trusted more than anyone in the world.
The investigation uncovered an unbelievable truth.
Thirty years earlier, Victoria had secretly partnered with corrupt hospital officials to steal Eleanor's children.
One child was abandoned and eventually raised by a loving working-class family.
The other was sold through an illegal adoption network overseas for millions of dollars.
Victoria disappeared before police could arrest her.
But before leaving, she sent Eleanor one chilling message.
"You found your daughter... but you'll never find your son."
For the first time since reclaiming her family, Eleanor felt powerless again.
Somewhere in the world...
May you like
Her son was still alive.
And he had no idea who he really was.
