Chapter 6 - THE TWENTY-THREE MISSING CHILDREN
I arrived at Adrian Voss's downtown office with a birth certificate in my purse and twenty-eight years of questions burning through my chest.
Mrs. Ellis waited beside a window overlooking the Chicago River.
She looked smaller than she had at the restaurant.
Older.
Exhausted.
But when she saw me, she stood.
"Sophie."
I stopped several feet away.
"Who was Catherine?"
Her eyes filled with tears.
"My daughter."
I swallowed.
"And my mother."
She nodded.
"Yes."
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then I asked the question that had haunted me since Adrian's call.
"Did someone kill her?"
Mrs. Ellis closed her eyes.
"That's what I've spent twenty-eight years trying to prove."
I looked around.
Adrian stood near the conference table with Marcus and a woman in a navy suit.
The woman introduced herself as Rebecca Stone, a former federal prosecutor now working with a nonprofit legal team.
I turned back toward Mrs. Ellis.
"Why didn't you come find me?"
"I tried."
"When?"
"For years."
She reached into her handbag.
Inside was a thick envelope filled with photographs.
School pictures.
Birthday photographs.
A newspaper clipping from my college graduation.
My stomach dropped.
"You've been watching me?"
"From a distance."
"Why?"
"Because every time I tried to contact you, someone threatened Helen."
I looked toward my mother, who had accompanied me upstairs.
Helen nodded sadly.
"It's true."
Mrs. Ellis began crying.
"I didn't want another person I loved to die."
Adrian moved closer.
"Mrs. Ellis, tell Sophie about Project Harbor."
She took a breath.
"The foundation was created by my late husband to provide medical care for struggling families."
"Your husband?"
"Edward Ellis."
She looked toward the window.
"After he died, several board members took control. They used the foundation to create false adoption records and move money through private trusts."
Rebecca placed documents on the table.
"Twenty-three children were affected by the records we've recovered."
My heart pounded.
"Where are they now?"
"Some have been located. Several remain unidentified."
I stared at the list.
Twenty-three names.
Twenty-three families.
Twenty-three childhoods built around secrets.
"Who was responsible?"
Mrs. Ellis looked toward Adrian.
"Victor Voss was one of the foundation's major investors."
Adrian's expression darkened.
"My father."
Mrs. Ellis nodded.
"But I don't believe he understood everything happening inside Harbor."
I looked at him.
"Do you?"
Adrian met my eyes.
"No. And I'm going to find out."
Rebecca opened another folder.
"Richard Carter disappeared shortly after obtaining evidence that the foundation's records were being manipulated."
"What happened to him?"
"We're still investigating."
I stared at the documents.
Then something caught my attention.
One child had been assigned a different name.
The original birth record listed a boy named Thomas Reed.
The replacement identity was Adrian Victor Voss.
I looked up slowly.
"Adrian?"
He frowned.
"What?"
I turned the document toward him.
His face drained of color.
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According to the records, Chicago's most feared Mafia boss wasn't Victor Voss's biological son.
He was another child taken through Project Harbor.
