CHAPTER 6 — THE WOMAN WHO KEPT THE RECEIPTS
Richard stared at Diane.
“You’re lying.”
“I helped her disappear.”
The lighter trembled in his hand.
Diane continued carefully.
“She took copies of everything. Payments, names, judges, doctors. All of it.”
Richard’s eyes filled with panic.
It was the first time Evie had ever seen him truly afraid.
“Where is she?”
Diane looked at Evie.
“She’s the one who pulled you from the fire.”
Evie felt the ground tilt beneath her.
She remembered fragments.
Smoke.
Heat.
The locked window breaking.
A woman’s voice telling her not to close her eyes.
At the hospital, Evie had assumed a firefighter saved her.
But no rescuer had ever been named.
Richard grabbed Diane by the hair.
“Where is Laura?”
Marcus moved one step closer.
Richard lifted the lighter.
“Stop!”
Diane looked straight at him.
“You killed the wrong woman twelve years ago.”
Richard’s face went still.
Evie understood before anyone explained.
The housekeeper Richard claimed had fled.
The unidentified body discovered near the river that same year.
Someone else had died in Laura’s place.
Diane had helped hide her.
A metallic bang echoed from behind Richard.
A maintenance hatch opened.
A woman in a firefighter’s breathing mask stepped into the loading bay and sprayed Richard with a high-pressure fire extinguisher.
The lighter flew from his hand.
Marcus tackled him before he could recover.
Officers forced Richard onto the ground and cuffed him.
The masked woman removed her helmet.
She was in her late forties, with dark hair streaked by gray and a scar running across her jaw.
Evie recognized her eyes.
“Laura?”
Laura Bennett stared at the young woman she had once cared for.
“I’m sorry it took me so long.”
Evie wanted to ask a thousand questions, but an alarm began pulsing.
The gas level had reached critical danger.
Fire crews guided everyone through an emergency exit.
Minutes after they emerged behind the detention building, an explosion tore through part of the underground tunnel.
Flames burst from ventilation shafts.
But the drives, videotapes and documents had already been secured.
Richard watched the fire from the ground while officers held him.
Everything he had tried to destroy was now evidence.
At the hospital, Laura finally told Evie the truth.
She had worked as a nurse at St. Catherine’s before becoming the Hales’ housekeeper. She discovered the trafficking network after seeing a living newborn taken away moments before its mother was told the baby had died.
That child was Evie.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Evie asked.
“I tried when you were eleven. Richard found out. He hired someone to kill me.”
“Who died by the river?”
“A woman named Marie Sutton. She was helping me expose them.”
Laura’s voice cracked.
“She gave me her identification and told me to run. Richard’s men mistook her for me.”
Evie looked away, fighting tears.
Laura reached into her bag and removed a thick black ledger.
“This contains every payment your parents received.”
Marcus opened it.
Names filled each page.
Doctors.
Lawyers.
Judges.
Business owners.
Then he reached the final section.
His expression changed.
“What is it?” Evie asked.
Marcus turned the ledger around.
One page was titled ACTIVE PLACEMENTS.
Sophie’s name appeared near the bottom.
Beside it was the name of her biological mother.
Lena Carter.
Evie stared at the page.
“That’s my birth mother.”
Laura nodded slowly.
“Sophie isn’t just another stolen child.”
May you like
She placed a hand over Evie’s.
“She’s your sister.”
