Chapter 7 - THE BOY THEY ERASEDEli was fourteen.
He had been moved between three facilities under false names.
When Theo found him, the boy initially refused to believe anyone had come for him.
“Lily?”
“She’s safe.”
“Really?”
Theo nodded.
Eli's eyes filled.
“She said you'd come.”
Theo crouched.
“She was right.”
Eli looked at him carefully.
“Are you really Theo Walker?”
“Yes.”
“My sister said you were the only person Mom trusted.”
Theo swallowed.
“Your mother was right.”
Eli handed him a folded piece of paper.
“Mom told me to keep this.”
Theo opened it.
A list of names.
People involved.
Politicians.
Judges.
Doctors.
Social workers.
And at the bottom:
MARGARET COLLINS.
The director of St. Clare's.
Theo's jaw tightened.
They returned to the orphanage.
Margaret was waiting.
She looked exhausted.
“I knew this day would come.”
Theo placed the documents on her desk.
“How many children?”
She started crying.
“Twenty-seven.”
“How many sold?”
“Seventeen.”
“How many dead?”
Margaret covered her face.
“Three.”
Silence.
Theo's voice became dangerously quiet.
“Why?”
“Money.”
“That isn't an answer.”
Margaret looked at him.
“Fear.”
She explained everything.
Richard had threatened her family.
Politicians had protected the network.
Wealthy families paid enormous amounts for healthy children.
Children with disabilities were deliberately classified as burdens.
Their files were buried.
Some were transferred.
Some disappeared.
Lily had been kept because someone knew she was Evan Walker's daughter.
Theo asked:
“Who ordered her disappearance?”
Margaret whispered one name.
Victor Parker.
Theo froze.
His father.
Dead for fifteen years.
Margaret shook her head.
“Not your father.”
Theo understood.
“Another Parker?”
“Yes.”
His father's younger brother.
Theo's uncle.
The man everyone believed had died overseas.
But he hadn't.
He had been running the network.
May you like
And he had one final target.
Lily.
