Chapter 4 - The Inside Betrayal
I stared at my forged signature until the letters blurred together through my tears.
Sarah warned me that family court judges took medical affidavits incredibly seriously.
She said we had less than forty-eight hours to prove the document was a complete fabrication before the emergency hearing.
I left the law office feeling like I was suffocating under the weight of Ryan's lies.
Maya suggested we try to figure out who had helped Ryan secure the fake medical documents.
She opened her laptop and searched the name of the pediatrician listed on the affidavit.
The doctor was a wealthy private practitioner named Dr. Aris.
Maya dug deeper into his public records and found a list of his major clinic donors.
Diane's name was at the very top of the list, having donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to his practice.
It was a massive conflict of interest, but it was not enough to prove the forgery.
I needed someone inside their family circle to testify against them.
My mind instantly went to Claire, the cousin who had secretly sent me the banquet video.
I decided to call her, hoping her guilt over the situation would compel her to help me.
She answered on the first ring, her voice hushed and frantic.
I begged her to tell the judge that Diane and Ryan were orchestrating a massive setup.
Claire was silent for a long moment.
She told me she knew exactly how they forged the signature because she was the one who scanned my old tax returns for them.
I gasped, realizing that Claire was not a secret ally at all.
She had played a role in trapping me from the very beginning.
Claire lowered her voice to a barely audible whisper.
She told me that if I wanted to keep Emma, I needed to meet her alone at an abandoned diner outside of town.
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She promised to hand over the original unedited medical files to prove my innocence.
She said I had to come alone because Ryan did not know she was calling me.
