Chapter 5 - The Kidnapping
I stared at the picture of Brooklyn on my phone until the screen went entirely black.
Agent Miller hadn't taken Brooklyn to a safe foster home or a state facility.
She had driven my daughter directly to Courtney’s house to attend the gender reveal party.
The terrifying truth slammed into me with absolute, sickening clarity.
Agent Miller was not a real Child Protective Services worker.
She was just another one of my mother’s wealthy, corrupt country club friends wearing a cheap gray suit.
My mother had completely fabricated the emergency removal order and used a fake agent to kidnap my daughter right in front of the police.
“Officer!” I screamed, running out into the busy hospital hallway.
The police officer who had reviewed the fake paperwork was standing near the nurse’s station writing his report.
He looked up, startled by the sheer panic in my voice.
“That CPS agent was a complete fraud!” I yelled, shoving my phone into his hands to show him the picture.
“She just took my daughter straight to my sister’s house!”
The officer’s face turned completely pale as he realized he had just handed a child over to a kidnapper.
He immediately grabbed the radio attached to his shoulder and called for emergency backup.
“We have a confirmed child abduction at City General Hospital,” the officer barked into the radio.
“Dispatch all available units to the suspect's address immediately.”
I tried to call Kevin's phone to warn him that he was walking into a house full of dangerous criminals.
His phone rang four times and went straight to a generic voicemail.
I dialed again, my hands shaking so badly I almost dropped the device onto the floor.
Still no answer.
“I have to go there,” I told the officer, sprinting back into the room to grab my purse.
“You cannot leave this hospital, ma'am,” the officer commanded, blocking the doorway.
“Your newborn is still in critical condition, and the suspect who tampered with her machine is still at large.”
“If you leave this secure floor, you are leaving your baby completely unprotected.”
He was absolutely right.
If my mother was brazen enough to orchestrate a fake CPS kidnapping, she might send someone else back to finish the job on Rosalie.
I was completely trapped inside the hospital, forced to choose between the safety of my two daughters.
I threw my purse onto the chair and paced the floor like a caged animal.
Gloria the nurse walked in, placing a comforting hand on my trembling shoulder.
“I will sit right here and guard this incubator with my life,” Gloria promised fiercely.
“No one is getting near this baby without going through me first.”
I hugged the nurse tightly, eternally grateful for her bravery in the middle of this nightmare.
Thirty agonizing minutes passed without a single update from Kevin or the police.
I stared blindly at the rhythmic rise and fall of Rosalie’s chest, praying that Kevin had reached Brooklyn in time.
Suddenly, my phone buzzed with an incoming text message.
It was from Kevin’s number.
I ripped the phone off the charger and opened the message with frantic hope.
It wasn't a message from my husband telling me he had saved our daughter.
It was a text from Courtney.
“He shouldn't have stuck his nose where it doesn't belong.”
Underneath the text was a short, ten-second video attachment.
I pressed play, and the breath completely vanished from my lungs.
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The video showed Kevin lying unconscious on the concrete driveway of Courtney’s house.
A massive pool of dark crimson blood was rapidly spreading out from underneath his head.
