Chapter 17 - One More Forgery

“Sloane's in custody,” Adrian said.

“Then someone is still working for him,” Hannah replied.

They met the visitor in the lobby: a nervous junior attorney with a forged court order and a prepaid phone. When Hannah confronted him, he began to cry.

“I was told to deliver it. I didn't know anyone was kidnapped.”

“Who told you?”

He hesitated, then named the hospital's chief financial officer. Within an hour, investigators had secured the hospital records and placed Evelyn under independent medical care.

Adrian returned to her room exhausted. She was staring at the ceiling.

“I thought you stopped looking,” she said.

“I thought I'd buried you.”

“I heard them say that. I tried to scream.”

He sat beside her. “I should have questioned everything.”

“You were grieving,” she said. “They used that.”

He held her hand until her breathing slowed.

At dawn, Sophie arrived with Rosa. She stopped in the doorway, her pink hair ribbon crooked, and stared at the woman in the bed.

“Mommy?”

Evelyn opened her arms.

The junior attorney was barely twenty-five. He had been told that delivering a transfer order would earn him a promotion. When Hannah explained that the patient had been kidnapped and the signature was forged, his face drained. 'I thought it was routine,' he said. Hannah took the paper. 'Routine is how people get away with terrible things. Who gave you the envelope?'

The answer led to a clerk who had worked for Sloane for eighteen years and had access to the firm's old seals. Naomi located payments from a Vale subsidiary to the clerk's account. Hannah arranged a search before anyone could destroy the records. Adrian stayed at the hospital this time. It was a small decision, but Evelyn noticed. 'You didn't run off to fix everything,' she said. 'I wanted to.' 'I know.'

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Before dawn, Evelyn asked whether Sophie still liked bedtime stories about the moon. Adrian smiled through tears. 'She makes me read the same one three times.' Evelyn closed her eyes. 'I was afraid she'd forget my voice.'

Sophie didn't move.