The Missing Mother
Chapter 05 - The Missing Mother
Police arrested Beatrice for unlawful child labor, identity fraud, and evidence tampering.
She demanded an attorney and said nothing more.
Emma was placed under temporary protection inside a guest suite with a social worker and a pediatric advocate.
Adrian did not ask for immediate custody.
He was her uncle by blood, but blood had already been used too often as permission.
The cassette archive contained no proof that Lillian died.
A payment ledger showed monthly transfers to Green Valley Recovery Center under the name Laura Reed.
The center was owned by one of Charles Blackwood’s shell companies.
Adrian, Marcus, and Detective Lena Ortiz traveled there.
The director claimed Laura Reed left years ago.
A retired nurse remembered differently.
Laura was a quiet woman with memory problems and a crescent-shaped scar near her temple. She spent years asking about a daughter named Emma.
Staff told her the child had died.
When Laura’s memory returned, she attempted to leave.
Beatrice arrived the next morning.
After that, Laura disappeared.
The nurse preserved a drawing found beneath Laura’s mattress.
It showed Blackwood Manor, the moon-tree locket, and a small door beneath the west staircase.
Emma recognized the door.
Beatrice kept it locked.
The hidden passage led to an old nursery.
Inside, Adrian found baby clothes, photographs of Lillian and Emma, and a wall covered with dates.
Someone had visited every year on Emma’s birthday.
The most recent date was three months earlier.
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Lillian might still be alive.
And she had entered the mansion while Emma slept only two floors away.
