Chapter 3
Megan’s confidence returned.
Not completely.
Enough to fight.
“You wanted to adopt.”
Laura’s eyes did not leave hers.
“You selected me.”
“I recommended you.”
“Without telling me Emma was your niece.”
Megan’s fingers tightened around a pearl bracelet.
“You would've asked questions.”
“Yes.”
“That was the problem.”
The words escaped.
Adrian closed his eyes.
Megan knew immediately she had said too much.
Laura stepped closer.
“What questions were you afraid of?”
Megan’s breath slowed deliberately.
“Claire’s life was complicated.”
“Whose isn't?”
“She was unstable.”
Adrian looked at Megan.
Something uncomfortable crossed his face.
Laura noticed.
“Was she?”
Megan hesitated.
That was enough.
Laura ordered the adoption correspondence retrieved through counsel.
The agency director, now retired, agreed to speak.
She remembered the case because the placement had moved unusually quickly.
Claire died six weeks after Emma’s birth following complications from a highway accident.
Before her death, she had identified no father on the official paperwork.
Megan contacted the agency shortly afterward.
She told them Claire had been estranged from extended family.
She recommended Laura.
“Why Laura?” the retired director asked during the call.
Megan had answered:
Because Laura understands what it means to protect someone from the Moretti name.
Laura stopped the recording.
Megan’s face had gone pale.
“That sounds like you were protecting Emma from us.”
“I was.”
“By placing her with me?”
“You were different.”
The answer carried something genuine.
Laura heard it.
Megan had trusted her with Emma.
At least in some twisted way.
That complicated the hatred at the banquet.
Laura asked:
“What changed?”
Megan looked toward the hallway where Emma had disappeared.
Her eyes hardened.
“She got older.”
Laura stared.
“That’s your explanation?”
“She started looking like Claire.”
Adrian’s head lifted.
Megan continued before she could stop herself.
“Every year.”
Her breathing became uneven.
“More and more.”
Laura finally understood one part of the cruelty.
Emma was not merely an adopted child Megan resented.
She was a face.
A memory.
A wound Megan had to see at every family dinner.
But that did not explain Adrian.
Laura turned toward him.
“You knew Megan arranged the adoption.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Claire was her sister.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Emma was Claire’s daughter.”
His jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
“Then why did you try to stop me from questioning any of this?”
Adrian’s eyes moved toward Megan.
She looked back.
A marriage conducting an entire argument without words.
Laura watched.
Then her attorney received another document from the agency.
A sealed-items inventory.
Claire had left three things for Emma.
A baby bracelet.
A handwritten letter.
And a medical-history envelope.
Laura had received only the bracelet.
No letter.
No medical envelope.
The agency record showed both missing items were collected before placement.
Authorized family representative:
Adrian Moretti.
Laura slowly raised her eyes.
May you like
Adrian’s confidence disappeared.
He had taken the last letter Emma’s biological mother ever wrote to her.
