Chapter 12 - The Half-Truth
The emergency hearing was set for Thursday.
Annie sat beside Isabella in the courthouse hallway. She kept twisting the strap of Leo’s red backpack around her fingers.
“I did everything they asked me to do,” she said. “I thought it was legal.”
“You loved him,” Isabella answered. “He knows that.”
Inside the courtroom, Celia’s attorney argued that the papers placing Leo with Annie were invalid because the birth mother’s signature had been forged. He was right about the forgery. He used it to argue that Annie had no standing to care for Leo.
Mara countered with three years of school forms, medical appointments, and testimony from June Bell. She asked the judge to let Leo remain with Annie while Isabella and Dante built a relationship with him.
The judge ordered a temporary arrangement. Leo would stay with Annie under supervision. Isabella and Dante would have separate visits. A full review would follow.
Outside, Annie began to cry with relief.
Then Calder called Mara over.
Celia had offered information in exchange for a deal. She would explain the foundation accounts and name the people who helped alter the hospital files. In return, she wanted reduced charges.
“She’ll tell us why,” Isabella said.
“Maybe,” Mara replied. “She’ll tell us what she thinks helps her.”
Celia’s recorded statement came that afternoon.
She claimed she had arranged Leo’s placement because an enemy of Dante’s family had threatened the newborn. She said she meant to return him when the danger passed. The falsified death record, she insisted, had been necessary to keep him hidden.
Dante listened beside Isabella.
“What enemy?” he asked when the recording ended.
“She wouldn’t name one,” Calder said.
“Because there wasn’t one,” Isabella replied.
Calder agreed the story did not fit the payments. Celia had been preparing the trust before Leo was born. She had paid an attorney to draft documents giving herself control of the foundation. Nothing in those records mentioned a threat.
But one part of Celia’s statement was verifiable.
“She says someone at the hospital changed the discharge destination after the baby left,” Calder said. “We found the original transport log.”
“Where did he go?” Isabella asked.
“For his first two days, he was at a private house outside the city. Annie didn’t receive him until afterward.”
Dante leaned forward. “Whose house?”
Calder turned the page.
“It belonged to your mother.”
Dante’s mother, Sofia, had died the year before Leo was born.
Celia had used the empty house for storage and family meetings. Isabella had been there only once since the funeral.
“Is it still standing?” she asked.
“Yes.”
Calder showed them a photograph taken that morning. The house looked abandoned. Its front gate hung open.
May you like
There were fresh tire tracks in the drive.
And a light was on upstairs.
