Chapter 5 - The Mother-in-Law Who Sold My Children
“Mom?”
The word came out of me before I could stop it.
She looked at me without emotion.
“Don't call me that.”
My heart shattered.
Adrian stood beside her.
Leo moved in front of me.
“Where are Nora's children?”
She smiled.
“They're safe.”
“Where?”
“That depends on her.”
I stepped forward.
“What do you want?”
“You always thought Daniel's death destroyed this family.”
I stared.
“What are you talking about?”
“You destroyed it long before that.”
I shook my head.
“I don't understand.”
“Daniel was going to testify.”
“Against whom?”
“Against Adrian.”
I looked at him.
Adrian smiled.
“He discovered the network.”
My mother-in-law continued.
“He wanted to expose everything.”
“And you stopped him?”
She looked away.
“I did what I had to do.”
“You let him die.”
“It wasn't supposed to happen that way.”
Leo stepped forward.
“You used Nora's children as leverage.”
“Yes.”
His face turned cold.
“Then you'll regret it.”
She laughed.
“You think you're different from your father?”
Leo stopped.
“What does that mean?”
She looked at him.
“Ask him about the Mercer foundation.”
Leo froze.
“What foundation?”
“The one your father created after Amelia died.”
He looked at me.
I knew nothing.
She smiled.
“He didn't build it to help children.”
Leo's face went pale.
“He built it because Amelia asked him to investigate the network.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“Leo, your wife knew too much.”
“You killed her?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Adrian smiled.
“Her doctor.”
Silence.
I remembered the medical file.
The contaminated formula.
The suspicious records.
The doctor.
Leo grabbed Adrian by the collar.
Mara pulled him back.
“Not here.”
My mother-in-law looked at me.
“Your children are in the same facility where Amelia was treated.”
I felt sick.
“What facility?”
She named it.
The hospital where Amelia had given birth.
The hospital where my children were currently hidden.
Leo immediately called his security team.
“We're going.”
The hospital was abandoned.
Or so the records said.
But beneath it was a private floor.
We found my children there.
Alive.
Terrified.
And sitting beside them was a woman I recognized.
The gray coat.
The fake nurse.
She saw me.
“Mommy!”
My children ran toward me.
I dropped to my knees.
I held them both.
I cried harder than I had cried in three months.
Leo stood nearby.
Isla's voice came through the earpiece of his security officer.
She was back at the estate.
Safe.
But the woman in the gray coat wasn't alone.
The doctor who had treated Amelia stood behind her.
He looked at Leo.
“You shouldn't have come.”
Leo stepped forward.
“Tell me what happened to my wife.”
The doctor sighed.
“Amelia discovered everything.”
“Everything?”
“The medical data. The custody manipulation. The infant trafficking network.”
I felt sick.
“Infant trafficking?”
The doctor nodded.
“Not always children physically. Sometimes identities.”
My blood ran cold.
“Identity trafficking.”
“Yes.”
Families were being manipulated.
Children placed under false records.
Medical histories changed.
Custody orders manufactured.
Insurance beneficiaries altered.
And vulnerable mothers were stripped of legal rights through fabricated evidence.
My children had almost disappeared into that system.
Leo stared at the doctor.
“Why Amelia?”
“She threatened to expose them.”
“Who ordered her death?”
The doctor looked at Adrian.
Everyone turned.
Adrian smiled.
“Not me.”
The doctor whispered a name.
A name that none of us expected.
“Evelyn Mercer.”
Leo froze.
“My aunt?”
“She helped create the network.”
Leo looked shattered.
His own family.
The foundation.
The company.
All connected.
Before anyone could react, the building shook.
An explosion.
The lights went out.
Smoke filled the hallway.
Leo grabbed my hand.
“Take the kids.”
“What about you?”
“Go.”
I refused.
“No.”
He stared at me.
“Nora.”
“I am done running.”
He looked at me for one second.
Then nodded.
“Stay behind me.”
We escaped through the service tunnel.
And as we emerged into the night, Leo looked back at the burning hospital.
His face was empty.
“My family did this.”
I squeezed his hand.
“Not you.”
He looked at me.
“You don't know that.”
“I know the man who fed his daughter with a broken heart.”
He stared at me.
May you like
“And I know you.”
Neither of us knew how much that sentence would matter.
