Chapter 7 - The True Mother
I stared at the faded ink on the page, the words scrambling all the logic I thought I possessed.
Aaron had married Reena when the kids were just babies, claiming his first girlfriend had abandoned them.
But Reena hadn't married into the family; she had stolen her own sister's life and children to secure a multi-million dollar trust fund.
I flipped frantically through the pages, looking for a name, a location, anything that could point me to the real mother.
On a page dated exactly one week before his fatal car crash, Aaron had written down an address.
It was a psychiatric facility located three towns over, listed under the name "Elena Vance."
Reena had locked her own sister away, faked the adoption papers, and married my brother to control the inheritance.
I started the engine, my tires squealing against the asphalt as I sped toward the police station.
I burst through the precinct doors and demanded to see Detective Sarah Miller, my oldest friend on the force.
I threw the journal onto her desk, breathless and sweating.
"You have to read the last ten pages, Sarah, it's all in there," I panted, leaning heavily against her cubicle wall.
She read the entries quickly, her professional demeanor shifting into a look of absolute horror.
"My god, Calder, Reena forged an entire identity to take control of the kids," Sarah whispered, reaching for her desk phone.
"We need to secure Drew and Lily right now, before she realizes you found the journal."
Sarah called the emergency foster home where CPS had placed the children for the night.
I watched her face turn pale as she listened to the social worker on the other end of the line.
She slowly hung up the phone and looked at me with terrified eyes.
"The social worker says a woman matching Reena's description showed up an hour ago with a forged court order."
Reena had taken the children again, and this time, she knew she had been exposed.
"She has them, Calder," Sarah said, grabbing her badge and her service weapon.
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Just then, the police scanner on Sarah's desk crackled with an emergency dispatch alert.
"All units respond to a multi-alarm structure fire at the residence of Reena Calder, potential victims trapped inside."
