Chapter 8 - The Baby Who Had Not Been Born
Renee was alive, exhausted, and frightened. Paramedics took her to a hospital where she could receive appropriate obstetric care. Gabriel and Thomas waited for her consent before entering. When she saw Thomas, she cried so hard she could not speak, and he simply held her hand.
“I'm here,” he said. “I'm right here.”
Renee was still pregnant.
The dispatcher had repeated her words accurately, but the meaning was different. Someone had taken a folder containing her baby's medical information and a signed-looking document claiming she had agreed to an adoption. She feared they would use it if she became separated from her child during delivery.
“They told me it was already decided,” she whispered.
Thomas leaned close. “Nothing about our baby gets decided without you.”
Renee looked at Gabriel. “They said you authorized everything.”
“I didn't.”
“I know that now.”
She described the five days in pieces. After confronting Julian about charity invoices, she had been taken to a private clinic under false pretenses, then moved between buildings. At one point a transport driver said she was being brought to a hospital; instead he delivered her to Bluebird House. She hid messages wherever she could, hoping Alma or Micah would find them.
“Mom heard me at the kitchen window,” she said. “I was trying to get to the road.”
“She kept your bracelet safe.”
Renee closed her eyes.
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
“Did they feed her?”
Gabriel did not lie. “They didn't take care of her. She's in a hospital, getting stronger.”
Renee turned her face toward the pillow. Thomas held her hand while she cried for her mother.
Lena collected her statement with care, allowing breaks and making sure clinicians' priorities came first. Renee identified some of the people involved and explained how Julian had used her concerns about missing charity money to isolate her. She did not know whether Elise's father, Walter, had ordered the confinement, though she had heard his name repeatedly.
Gabriel's board audit produced another surprise. The administrator account used to authorize the pharmacy transfer had been accessed from a network assigned to the Voss law firm. The access log narrowed the source but did not prove who sat at the keyboard. Investigators sought additional evidence.
Camille showed Renee the supposed placement document.
“Is that your signature?”
“No.”
“Did you ever agree to place your child with Elise or Julian?”
“Never.”
Renee looked at Gabriel. “Elise said I was an unfit Black woman who couldn't provide the kind of future her family could. She said if I told people, everyone would believe her lawyers over me.”
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
“We're keeping a record of what she said.”
“She kept calling it a blessing,” Renee whispered. “Like stealing my choices was doing me a favor.”
Thomas pulled his chair closer.
“Our child will hear the truth from us.”
The following afternoon, Renee asked Camille to sit with her while she called the nurse who had helped her at the clinic. Valerie answered during her break and began to apologize. Renee interrupted gently.
“You slipped me water when they said I couldn't have any. I remember that.”
“I should have gotten you out.”
“You tried. And you told them where I'd been.”
Valerie asked whether the baby was doing well. Renee said her doctor was monitoring them both and that she was relieved to be somewhere she could ask questions without another person answering for her.
After the call, Thomas opened the curtains. Snow had not come, but the evening sky was gray and the neighbor's inflatable Santa had fallen sideways on the lawn. Renee laughed unexpectedly.
“Santa looks like he's had our week.”
Thomas laughed with her. It startled them both, the sound of ordinary life returning in a room where nobody had told Renee she had to be brave.
By Christmas Eve, investigators had identified the transport driver. He agreed to speak through counsel and confirmed that Julian arranged payments for moving Renee between facilities. He denied knowing she was being held against her will. His account would have to be tested against other evidence.
Elise and Julian issued separate statements accusing each other of making the decisions. Walter Voss denied involvement and said the placement paperwork had been drafted for a hypothetical future emergency. Their explanations did not account for why Renee had been denied outside contact or why Alma had been restrained.
Renee was discharged later under a safety plan approved by her care team. She chose to stay at Camille's home, where Gabriel brought Alma for a carefully arranged reunion once Alma's doctors cleared the trip.
Mother and daughter held each other in the living room beside a tiny artificial Christmas tree.
“I tried to get to you,” Alma said.
“I know.”
“I couldn't make them stop.”
“You don't have to apologize.”
Gabriel stood at the doorway with Micah. His son whispered, “Are we allowed to be happy now?”
Gabriel looked at the women, both alive, both healing.
“We can be happy about this part.”
That night, the family made grilled cheese sandwiches and watched an old black-and-white Christmas movie. Renee fell asleep halfway through with Thomas's hand resting over hers. Micah put his saved cookie beside her cup.
At 11:58, Camille received an email from the independent auditor.
The missing charity money had not all gone to Northstar.
More than a million dollars had been transferred to a company controlled by a person nobody had investigated.
Camille stared at the name.
May you like
It was Danielle Brooks.
Gabriel's wife had been dead for three years.
