Chapter 8 - The Foster Family
Caleb had lived with Mark and Susan Price since he was nine.
Rebecca never permanently surrendered custody, but she disappeared for months at a time.
The Prices gave Caleb stability.
A bedroom.
School lunches.
Someone in the audience at every baseball game.
When police reached their home, the front door was open.
Susan stood in the kitchen, shaken but unharmed.
Rebecca had arrived twenty minutes earlier.
She demanded Caleb’s files.
Mark refused.
Rebecca searched the house anyway.
She took a locked metal box from Caleb’s bedroom.
Inside were letters he had written to Mason but never sent.
Photographs of Violet.
A copy of the archived hospital request.
Rebecca believed the original bracelet was there.
When she discovered it was not, she fled.
Police traced her vehicle toward a small private airfield.
Rebecca had purchased a ticket under another name.
Mason and Caleb waited at the station.
Caleb stared at the floor.
“She always runs.”
Mason sat across from him.
“You don’t have to run with her.”
“I don’t know you.”
“No.”
“You have Violet. You had a whole family.”
Mason’s voice stayed steady.
“I had a daughter I love. I also had a son stolen from me.”
Caleb looked up.
“I’m not the boy you imagined.”
“I’m not asking you to be.”
For the first time, Caleb’s expression softened.
Police arrested Rebecca at the airfield.
She had Claire’s passport, cash, forged identification, and the stolen metal box.
During questioning, she blamed Claire.
Then Caleb’s hospital records were placed in front of her.
She requested an attorney.
Claire accepted responsibility.
She described the payment, false discharge papers, years of blackmail, and the decision to enter Violet’s house.
The evidence supported her account.
She had not attacked Violet.
But her deception had made the attack possible.
Violet was discharged from the hospital four days later.
Caleb stood awkwardly outside her room.
She hugged him.
“You came.”
“I should’ve kept you out of it.”
“You tried to tell me the truth.”
Mason watched them together.
Violet looked at him.
“Dad, this is Caleb.”
Mason’s voice caught.
“We’ve met.”
Violet smiled faintly.
“No. I mean really meet him.”
Caleb extended his hand.
Mason did not pull him into an unwanted embrace.
He shook it.
May you like
“Hello, Caleb.”
👉 Mason had finally met his son, but the investigation revealed that Rebecca’s deception was connected to Violet’s mother too.
