Chapter 4 - The SafehouseSimone drove them deep into the rolling countryside outside Columbus, pulling up to an isolated, sprawling estate surrounded by iron gates and dense pine trees. The house looked like a fortress from a gothic novel, grand yet desolate.
“Whose place is this?” Leah asked, stepping out of the car into the biting autumn wind, shielding her baby from the chill.
“Mine,” Simone replied, unlocking the heavy oak front door. “Or rather, it’s mine until my husband’s lawyers figure out I changed the locks. Don’t worry, the security system here bypasses local police networks. Doreen can track your cell phone, but she won’t find a single digital footprint here.”
Inside, the house was immaculate, warm, and utterly silent. Simone led Leah to a nursery that was already fully prepared—complete with a crib, soft lighting, and clothes neatly folded in drawers.
“How did you...?” Leah stared in astonishment.
“Let’s just say I’ve been planning my own exit strategy for six months,” Simone said with a wry smile, pouring two cups of hot tea in the expansive kitchen. “Now, listen to me, Leah. We have about twelve hours before Nathan and Doreen realize they can’t find you through standard police channels and decide to use private investigators. We need to flip the script.”
“How do we do that? They have the medical establishment, the lawyers, and the police chief in their pocket,” Leah said, feeling the crushing weight of their helplessness.
“They have money and institutional power. But we have something better: the truth, and a very dirty secret,” Simone replied, sliding a flash drive across the kitchen island. “While you were packing your bag at the hospital yesterday, I accessed the administrative mainframe through a contact in the billing department. This flash drive contains every unredacted transfer record of closed adoption cases handled by Briar Glen over the last decade—including the trust fund account funded by Doreen Sterling.”
Leah looked at the small piece of plastic. It held the power to destroy her husband's family completely. But as she looked down at her baby boy sleeping peacefully in the bassinet, a terrifying realization hit her.
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“If we release this, Nathan goes down too,” Leah whispered, her voice trembling.
Simone took a sip of her tea, her eyes sharp and unforgiving. “Honey, Nathan stopped being your husband the moment he signed those psychiatric papers. It’s time to decide if you want to protect a coward, or save your son.”
