Chapter 15 - Doreen’s Truth

Doreen closed the door behind her.

Mae moved slightly toward Leah.

“Stay where you are,” Doreen said.

Leah stared at the gun. “You planned this before he was born.”

“I planned for survival.”

“Your survival.”

“My family’s.”

Doreen’s voice finally cracked.

“Harold left me with a collapsing real-estate portfolio and a son who could lose money in a locked room. The trust was the only protected asset.”

“So you needed my baby.”

“I needed legal control.”

“You could have asked for help.”

Doreen laughed. “From whom? You? A school counselor with student loans?”

Leah felt anger rise so cleanly it steadied her.

“You hated me because I wasn’t rich.”

“I distrusted you because you believed feelings were a plan.”

“And selling babies was your plan?”

Doreen’s jaw tightened.

“Those placements financed the foundation when Harold’s investments failed. And every child went to people who could provide more than their birth mothers ever could.”

Mae whispered, “You stole my niece.”

Doreen glanced at her. “Your sister would have ruined that child.”

Mae lunged.

Doreen fired.

Mae spun and fell.

Leah screamed.

The bullet had struck Mae high in the shoulder.

Noah began wailing.

Doreen pointed the gun at Leah again.

“Put him in the crib.”

“No.”

“Do not make me choose.”

“You already chose. Years ago.”

Leah backed toward the emergency door.

Doreen followed.

Then Nathan’s voice came over the old intercom.

“Mom.”

Doreen froze.

Nathan continued.

“I heard everything.”

Doreen looked toward the ceiling speaker.

“Nathan, turn that off.”

“No.”

Her face changed.

“Nathan.”

His answer was quiet.

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Doreen spoke about Harold with a bitterness Leah had never heard before. He had controlled every major account while alive, then tried to cut her out when he discovered foundation irregularities. After his death, Doreen had rebuilt her influence by making herself indispensable - to Nathan, to hospital donors, to couples desperate for children. "People paid for certainty," she said. Leah answered, "No. They paid you to steal somebody else's uncertainty and turn it into your profit." For the first time, Doreen's calm expression cracked.

“The police heard it too.”