Chapter 9 - THE WOMAN WHO STOLE THE TWINS
Daniel stared at Helen.
“The girls said their mother told them to protect the bread.”
Helen nodded slowly.
“I prepared it the night they were taken.”
“Claire taught me to hide messages inside bread when Margaret began searching our home.”
“But I never reached the lake house.”
Detective Ortiz stepped closer.
“Who took the children?”
Helen’s hands began to shake.
“Lauren.”
Daniel felt a wave of anger rise inside him.
“My sister-in-law?”
Helen nodded.
“She came with two men.”
“She said she wanted to reunite the triplets.”
“I believed her because she showed me a photograph of Noah.”
Helen wiped tears from her face.
“Then she took my daughters and had me committed here.”
Daniel remembered how Lauren had immediately reached for the bread.
She had not been guessing that something was hidden inside it.
She had known.
“Why leave the girls outside the lake house?”
Helen shook her head.
“Lauren did not plan to leave them there.”
“She wanted to use them.”
“Use them for what?”
Helen looked at Daniel with shame.
“To force Margaret to give Ethan control of the company.”
The betrayal was larger than Daniel had imagined.
Margaret had stolen his children to protect the family fortune.
Lauren had stolen them again to seize that same fortune.
The girls had been passed between adults like bargaining pieces.
Helen continued.
“Lauren kept Ivy and Skye in a rental house.”
“A woman named Brenda watched them.”
“Three days ago, Brenda disappeared.”
“The girls must have escaped.”
Detective Ortiz checked Lauren’s financial records.
Large payments had been sent to Brenda Collins, a former employee at one of Ethan’s restaurants.
Police surrounded Ethan and Lauren’s home that evening.
Lauren was gone.
Her closet was empty.
Cash and jewelry had been removed from the safe.
On the kitchen counter sat a custody petition.
It named Lauren and Ethan as the intended guardians of all three children.
Ethan read the document in disbelief.
“I never signed this.”
Detective Ortiz examined the signature.
“Someone forged your name.”
Daniel looked at his brother.
“Did Lauren know Noah was mine before you did?”
Ethan’s silence answered the question.
“She found the hospital bracelet two years ago,” he finally admitted.
“She made me promise not to tell you.”
Daniel’s voice became cold.
“And you obeyed her.”
Ethan lowered his eyes.
“I thought I would lose Noah.”
Daniel pointed toward the empty house.
“You may lose him because you protected the person who endangered him.”
A police officer entered carrying a laptop.
“We found a video file scheduled to upload tomorrow morning.”
The video showed Lauren sitting in front of a camera.
“By the time you see this, I will have what belongs to my husband.”
“Daniel stole Ethan’s future before either of them was born.”
“Now Daniel’s children will give it back.”
Then Lauren held up a second digital recorder.
May you like
“Claire left more than one confession.”
“And this recording proves Daniel knew about everything.”
