Chapter 5 - THE CHILD WHO NEVER EXISTED
Noah Shaw had no death certificate.
That was the first impossible fact.
The second was worse.
According to state records, Noah Shaw had never been born.
No birth certificate.
No medical history.
No school enrollment.
Nothing.
Detective Bennett spent the morning tracing old Blackwood records.
By noon, she found something.
Ten years earlier, Rebecca had spent six months living at a private Blackwood property in Vermont.
Richard had told friends she was studying overseas.
She wasn’t.
She had been pregnant.
Noah had been born at a Blackwood-owned private clinic.
His birth had never been formally registered.
Daniel stared at Bennett.
“How is that possible?”
“Money.”
One word.
Enough explanation.
Richard controlled doctors.
Administrators.
Attorneys.
Private security.
When Noah died, the family had made him disappear twice.
Once physically.
Once on paper.
But someone had kept records.
Margaret.
Daniel found his mother at the hospital chapel.
She was sitting alone.
“You knew about Noah.”
Margaret looked up.
Her face answered before her mouth did.
“How?”
“Vanessa told me years ago.”
“And you said nothing?”
“I thought the child’s death had been investigated.”
“It wasn’t.”
Margaret began crying.
Daniel sat opposite her.
“Mom, where is Rebecca?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where would Richard take her?”
Margaret wiped her eyes.
Then she froze.
“What?”
“There’s a lake house.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“What lake house?”
“Richard bought it under another company.”
“Where?”
“About ninety miles north.”
Daniel immediately called Bennett.
Police reached the property three hours later.
Rebecca wasn’t there.
Richard wasn’t there.
But they found something else.
A locked storage room.
Inside were boxes of old family documents.
Medical records.
Financial ledgers.
Photographs.
And one small blue blanket.
Embroidered into the corner was a name.
NOAH.
Underneath the blanket was an envelope.
Inside was a handwritten note.
If anything happens to me, Richard knows why.
May you like
It was signed by Rebecca Shaw.
And dated two days before Noah died.
