The Woman Called Anna Reed
Chapter 06 - The Woman Called Anna Reed
The North Archive contained recent payments to Fairmont Renewal Center.
Patient A-19 lived there under the name Anna Reed.
The patient file described severe memory problems, paranoia, and fixation on a wealthy family.
The photograph matched Mara.
Detective Ortiz obtained an emergency warrant.
Fairmont administrators said Anna had been discharged that morning.
No destination appeared in the medical record.
Security footage showed Victor Shaw arriving before sunrise with a private ambulance.
Vanessa entered the facility by a rear door.
Mara had been moved hours before the wedding.
A nurse named Rachel Stone contacted Ortiz after seeing the investigation on television.
Rachel had cared for Mara for three years.
She said Mara was intelligent, oriented, and repeatedly asked to contact Adrian.
The center denied every request under an emergency guardianship signed by Judge Evelyn Crowne.
Rachel secretly copied Mara’s letters.
One was addressed to Sophie.
Another named an abandoned Holloway hotel near Lake Mercer.
The hotel had closed after a flood damaged its lower level.
Mara believed the Crownes used the property as a transit site for children whose records were being changed.
State police reached the hotel at midnight.
In a locked conference room, they found Mara with three case files and a packed medical bag.
She had not been physically restrained.
She had been told that leaving would cause Sophie’s adoption to be canceled and place the child in juvenile custody.
Mara stayed because the threat sounded legally possible.
The Crownes controlled judges, agencies, and doctors around her.
When Ortiz entered with an independent advocate, Mara asked only one question.
“Did Sophie reach Adrian?”
“Yes.”
May you like
Mara lowered her head and cried.
The locket had completed the journey she could not.
