Chapter 13 - cold linen
The implications tore through my mind like a physical blade. Every warm smile Eleanor had given me over Sunday dinners, every reassuring touch from Julian when I wept from exhaustion, every gentle bottle Dr. Thorne had prepared in our nursery—it was all part of a calculated, cold-blooded execution of my sanity and my motherhood.
"They aren't just trying to take him," I whispered, pulling Leo closer against my chest as if the dark room itself might reach out and snatch him. "If the court declares him brain-damaged from an unknown genetic defect, they collect the trust fund while placing him in a private institution forever."
"Or worse," Maya added, standing up and sliding a heavy rain slicker over her shoulders. "Once the guardianship papers are signed, a baby who fails to thrive in an institution doesn't make the evening news. Eleanor Vane has buried two husbands, Laura. A newborn wouldn't even warrant an autopsy."
I stood up from the cot, my legs shaking but my spine stiffening with a sudden, fierce rage that drowned out my fear. "Where is the master registry kept? The original documents showing the surrogate contracts and the lot assignments?"
"In Eleanor's private study at the Vane Manor in Riverdale," Sarah said, holding up a small brass key attached to a red ribbon. "I kept this key when Eleanor fired me from her home nursing staff two years ago. It opens the floor safe hidden beneath the mahogany bookcase in the east wing."
"We go tonight," I said without hesitation.
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"It's suicide, Laura," Maya warned, picking up a heavy flashlight and checking its battery. "Julian has three private guards patrolling the courtyard twenty-four hours a day. The house is rigged with motion sensors."
"Julian thinks I’m wandering the highway in a state of mental breakdown," I said, looking down at my baby boy who was now resting peacefully, his small chest rising in healthy, rhythmic beats. "He expects a broken woman to come crawling back begging for help. He doesn't expect me to come back for the truth."
