Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN WHO BOUGHT MY LUNCH
I stared at the birth certificate until the words stopped making sense.
Margaret Whitcomb Ellis.
The elderly woman whose sandwich I'd bought for twelve dollars and forty cents.
The woman who had smiled at me through tears.
The woman who'd told me kindness mattered more than money.
According to the document in my hand, she was my biological mother.
I looked toward Helen Carter.
"Mom?"
Her face crumpled.
"Sophie, please."
"Explain."
She reached for me.
I stepped backward.
"Please tell me this is a mistake."
Helen began crying.
"I raised you. I loved you every single day."
"That wasn't my question."
She sat heavily on the bed.
"Margaret Ellis had a daughter named Catherine."
I went still.
"Catherine?"
Helen nodded.
"Catherine was your biological mother."
I looked at the certificate.
"But it says Margaret."
"That's because the document was altered."
My heart hammered.
"Why?"
Helen took a slow breath.
"Project Harbor."
The name sent a chill through me.
She explained that a private medical foundation had operated several maternity programs in Chicago nearly three decades earlier.
Officially, the foundation assisted vulnerable mothers.
Unofficially, someone had been changing birth records and transferring children into unauthorized placements.
Richard Carter discovered discrepancies while investigating the foundation's finances.
The children were being treated like entries in a ledger.
Some had been separated from their families through deception.
Others were listed under false names.
"Richard helped several mothers recover their children," Helen whispered.
"And me?"
She looked down.
"Your mother Catherine died shortly after giving birth."
My chest tightened.
"How?"
"I don't know everything."
"Then how did I end up with you?"
Helen wiped her tears.
"Richard brought you home. He told me Catherine had begged him to keep you safe."
I stared.
"Was Richard my biological father?"
Helen hesitated.
"No. He wasn't."
The room tilted.
For twenty-eight years, I'd believed two people were my parents.
Now I was discovering that neither was biologically related to me.
But when I looked at Helen's frightened face, something inside me softened.
She had sat beside every childhood fever.
She'd taught me to ride a bicycle.
She'd worked overtime so I could afford school supplies.
Whatever the papers said, she was my mother.
I sat beside her.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"At first, because you were too young. Later, because I was afraid you'd think I wasn't your mother anymore."
I took her hand.
"You should have trusted me."
She nodded through tears.
"I know."
My phone rang.
Adrian.
I answered.
"What?"
His voice was tense.
"Sophie, Mrs. Ellis just contacted me."
My stomach tightened.
"Why?"
"She's asking whether you've opened Richard's letter."
I stood.
"How could she know about that?"
Adrian paused.
"Because she says she gave Richard the original birth records."
My hand tightened around the phone.
"Where is she?"
"At my office."
"I'm coming."
"Sophie, there's something else."
"What?"
Adrian took a breath.
"Mrs. Ellis says Catherine didn't die after childbirth."
I stopped breathing.
"Then what happened?"
May you like
His answer shattered the room around me.
"She says your mother was murdered because she refused to give you away."
