Chapter 4
Hawthorne House looked beautiful from the road.
That immediately worried me.
Warm windows.
Fresh landscaping.
A polished sign.
The kind of place donors photograph without asking what happens after the camera leaves.
Twenty-three children slept inside.
Fed now.
Thank God.
But not well.
Sandwiches.
Fruit.
Whatever staff could improvise after arriving without proper supplies.
I found two toddlers asleep in coats because nobody had unpacked their blankets yet.
Temporary transfer.
Prepared for no one.
Gideon Vale met me in the hall.
Perfect suit.
Perfect calm.
“Gabriel.”
“Where is Eli Dawson?”
He sighed.
Not fear.
Annoyance.
That irritated me more.
“The boy ran.”
“From here?”
“From St. Catherine’s.”
Martha stepped forward.
“No.”
Gideon barely looked at her.
“He was upset.”
Martha’s eyes sharpened.
“Eli does not run when he is frightened. He hides under tables.”
Gideon finally looked at her.
That was useful.
People reveal themselves by who they consider worth answering.
I walked closer.
“What did Eli find?”
His expression did not move.
“A box of junk.”
“Then why did you take him separately?”
“I didn’t.”
I held up my phone.
Rose had already sent me a photograph from yesterday.
Taken accidentally while helping children board.
In the background:
Gideon.
His hand on Eli’s shoulder.
Eli carrying a rusted metal tin.
A black SUV behind them.
Not a bus.
Gideon stared.
Good.
“Try again.”
He looked toward Rafe.
Then at me.
“I took him to talk.”
“Where?”
“St. Catherine’s office.”
“Then?”
“He ran.”
“What did you take from him?”
No answer.
Martha whispered:
“The notebook.”
Gideon’s jaw tightened.
There.
I moved closer.
“What was in it?”
He answered finally.
“Names.”
“Whose?”
“Old donors.”
I almost laughed.
“No one relocates twenty-four children before breakfast because a nine-year-old found an old donor list.”
Silence.
Then a little girl appeared at the top of the staircase.
Maybe seven.
She looked at Martha.
“Miss Martha?”
Martha softened instantly.
“Yes, sweetheart?”
The girl pointed toward Gideon.
“Mr. Vale said Eli found Mr. Gabriel’s mother.”
Everything inside me went still.
I had never known my mother.
Not her face.
Not her name.
May you like
Nothing.
And somehow a nine-year-old child had found something in that building that made Gideon empty the entire home before I could see it.
