Chapter 10 - THE CALL FROM MY FATHER
Jonathan spoke from a dark room with no windows.
His hair was white, but his voice had not aged.
He told me the embryo had not been intended for pregnancy.
It was a research sample created to test genetic compatibility among members of the network’s founding families.
Dr. Cole implanted it after Michael discovered he was infertile.
Sarah saw an opportunity to create a donor for Lily.
Jonathan saw a liability.
“If that child is born,” he said, “the DNA exposes everything.”
“Everything is already exposed.”
“No. You’ve found crimes. You haven’t found the reason.”
“What reason justifies selling children?”
He smiled sadly.
“America sells children every day. We simply removed the paperwork delays.”
I wanted to throw the phone.
Instead, I kept him talking while Ortiz traced the signal.
Jonathan claimed many judges, doctors, politicians, and charity directors used Providence.
The network did not end with my family.
He offered me safety if I withdrew from the case and surrendered the baby.
“You chained your own daughter.”
“Michael did that.”
“You built him.”
“I underestimated his appetite for cruelty.”
“You don’t get to speak as if you’re better.”
For the first time, anger crossed his face.
“You survived because I protected you.”
“No. I survived despite you.”
Ortiz signaled that the trace was close.
Jonathan seemed to notice.
He leaned toward the camera.
“Ask Rebecca what her father did with the children who were never adopted.”
The call ended.
The signal came from an abandoned courthouse annex.
Agents found the room empty, but they recovered recent food containers, communication equipment, and a wall covered with photographs of witnesses.
Rebecca’s picture had a red mark across it.
So did mine.
Melissa Grant’s photograph had already been crossed out.
Ortiz called the psychiatric facility where Melissa was being protected.
The guards did not answer.
We rushed there.
Melissa’s room was empty.
Blood marked the floor, but there was no body.
A nurse had received transfer papers bearing Naomi’s forged signature.
Security footage showed Melissa being taken away in an ambulance.
The driver was Dr. Adrian Cole.
They had escaped together.
Or so it appeared.
A traffic camera later captured the ambulance abandoned beneath an overpass.
Cole was found unconscious inside.
Melissa was gone.
When he woke, Cole insisted she had attacked him.
“She isn’t a victim,” he whispered. “She was Jonathan’s first partner.”
Rebecca searched the recovered ledger.
Melissa’s name appeared not under mothers or nurses.
Under FOUNDERS.
Then Lily called from the hospital.
She sounded terrified.
“Mom, there’s a woman in my room.”
I heard Melissa’s voice behind her.
May you like
“Tell Emily I have the original list.”
The line went dead.
