Chapter 5 - THE HOUSE BENEATH THE PINES
The Vermont address led to a ruined farmhouse outside a town called Bellweather.
Detective Ortiz ordered me not to go.
I went anyway.
Daniel accompanied me, along with Elias and two licensed security officers.
Margaret remained at the estate with Lily.
Helen traveled in a separate vehicle under federal protection.
Snow covered the rural road.
The farmhouse stood beyond a line of tall pines, its roof collapsed and its windows blackened by the fire that had destroyed it five years earlier.
The owners had been Jonathan and Marie Keller.
They had adopted an infant named Sophie through the Mercer Foundation.
According to official records, all three died in the fire.
According to Helen, Sophie’s remains were never positively identified.
We searched the perimeter while Daniel examined property records.
Behind the house, I noticed a stone well sealed with a rusted metal cover.
A golden bird had been scratched into the surface.
Evelyn used to draw that bird everywhere.
On birthday cards.
On grocery lists.
On the margins of books.
I called the others.
Elias lifted the cover.
The well was dry.
A ladder descended into darkness.
At the bottom, we found a narrow tunnel leading beneath the farmhouse.
The passage opened into a hidden concrete room untouched by the fire.
There was a small bed.
Children’s books.
Canned food.
A battery-powered lamp.
And hundreds of photographs pinned to the walls.
They showed Sophie from infancy to age five.
In the earliest images, she looked exactly like Lily.
As she grew, she began to resemble me.
My dark eyes.
My crooked smile.
My hair.
I pressed one photograph to my chest.
My daughter had lived.
On a shelf sat a video camera.
Its memory card contained a recording dated two days before the fire.
Marie Keller appeared on screen.
She looked frightened.
“If anyone finds this, our daughter’s birth name may be Rose Bennett. We adopted her through St. Catherine’s, but we recently learned her mother was told she died.”
I covered my mouth.
Rose was the name I had chosen during pregnancy.
Only Grant and Evelyn knew it.
Marie continued.
“A man named Grant Mercer has threatened us. He said Sophie belongs to the organization that placed her, and if we speak to the authorities, we will lose everything.”
Jonathan appeared behind her.
“We copied their records. The files are hidden where the birds sleep.”
The video ended.
Elias searched the room.
Daniel inspected the drawings.
I stared at the ceiling.
Dozens of small wooden birds hung from hooks.
Inside one, we found a flash drive.
It contained lists of children transferred through the network.
Payments.
False death certificates.
Hospital employee names.
Judges.
Police officers.
Politicians.
The operation was larger than anyone imagined.
Then one filename caught my attention.
ROSE BENNETT—STATUS ACTIVE.
I opened it.
The most recent entry was only six months old.
LOCATION: HAWTHORNE HOUSE.
GUARDIAN: DR. MIRIAM VOSS.
TRANSFER PENDING AGE SEVEN.
My daughter was nearly seven.
“What does ‘transfer pending’ mean?” I asked.
Helen read the entry.
Her face drained.
“It means someone paid for her again.”
A noise echoed from the tunnel.
One security guard raised his weapon.
A metal canister rolled into the room.
White smoke erupted.
My eyes burned.
Daniel collapsed beside me.
Someone seized my arms and dragged me toward the passage.
I kicked backward, striking a knee.
A masked man cursed.
Elias fired once.
The attacker released me and fled.
We stumbled outside as flames appeared near the farmhouse’s remaining wall.
The intruders had set another fire.
They wanted to destroy the room and everyone inside it.
We escaped with the flash drive and camera.
One guard suffered smoke inhalation, but no one died.
As paramedics treated us, Detective Ortiz arrived furious that we had disobeyed her.
Then she saw the files.
Her anger became horror.
She called federal authorities.
Within hours, arrest teams raided three fertility clinics and two law offices.
Grant vanished before they reached our house.
His vehicle was found near the Canadian border.
Inside the trunk, police discovered passports, cash, and a child’s red ribbon.
The same kind Rose had worn in the newborn photograph.
On the passenger seat lay a map.
Hawthorne House had been circled.
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Beside it, Grant had written:
NORA CANNOT SEE HER FIRST.
