Chapter 5 - The Baby in Elena’s Arms
Molly stared at the photograph until the edges blurred.
“That’s not me.”
Nobody answered.
She looked at Adrian.
“That cannot be me.”
Adrian’s face held no triumph.
Only dread.
Molly turned the photograph over again.
Molly Higgins.
The handwriting was delicate and faded.
Victor looked at her.
“How old are you?”
“Thirty-one.”
His jaw tightened.
Elena had died fifteen years ago.
Molly would have been sixteen.
“So she wasn’t holding Molly as a baby,” Victor said.
Adrian nodded.
“No.”
Molly exhaled.
Relief came too quickly.
Then Adrian continued.
“She was holding Molly’s daughter.”
Silence.
Molly stared at him.
“I don’t have a daughter.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“Not anymore.”
Molly stepped backward.
Victor caught her elbow.
She pulled away.
“Do not touch me.”
Victor immediately released her.
Molly looked at Adrian.
“Explain.”
“At sixteen, you gave birth at Saint Catherine’s Hospital.”
Her face emptied.
Only three people knew.
Molly.
Her mother.
And the adoption agency.
She had spent fifteen years refusing to think about the little girl she held for eleven minutes.
She had been sixteen.
Terrified.
The father was a seventeen-year-old boy who disappeared the moment he learned she was pregnant.
Linda worked two jobs.
They had no money.
Molly had chosen adoption.
She told herself it was love.
Some nights it still felt like abandonment.
“How do you know?” she whispered.
Adrian looked at the photograph.
“Elena volunteered with the hospital’s young-mother program.”
Molly remembered a dark-haired college student.
Kind eyes.
A warm voice.
A woman who had sat with her when Linda went home to shower.
Elena.
Molly covered her mouth.
“Oh my God.”
Victor stared at her.
“You knew my sister?”
“I didn’t know her last name.”
Memories came back violently.
Elena bringing her orange juice.
Elena holding the baby when Molly was too exhausted.
Elena saying, “You don’t have to be ashamed of loving someone enough to let them go.”
Molly started crying.
Not loudly.
The tears simply came.
“What happened to my daughter?”
Adrian hesitated.
Molly’s voice sharpened.
“What happened?”
“She was adopted.”
“I know that.”
“By Elena.”
Victor froze.
Dominic whispered, “What?”
Adrian nodded.
“Elena began the process privately.”
Victor looked stunned.
“She was twenty.”
“She petitioned through an agency with your father’s financial backing.”
Victor laughed in disbelief.
“Father knew?”
“Yes.”
Molly’s knees weakened.
Victor pulled a chair toward her.
This time she sat.
“Why?” Molly asked.
Adrian knelt several feet away.
“Elena couldn’t have biological children.”
Molly remembered Elena crying once in the hospital chapel.
At the time, she thought the young woman was emotional because of Molly’s situation.
Now she understood.
“Elena planned to raise her?”
“Yes.”
“What was her name?”
Adrian whispered, “Grace.”
Molly shut her eyes.
She had named the baby Grace.
The adoptive family had promised they would keep it.
Elena kept the promise.
“Where is she?”
Nobody answered.
Molly opened her eyes.
“Where is Grace?”
Adrian looked at Victor.
Victor seemed afraid of the answer.
Adrian said, “She disappeared after Elena’s death.”
Molly stood.
“What do you mean disappeared?”
“Your father took custody temporarily.”
Victor shook his head.
“I never saw a child.”
“He hid her existence.”
“Why?”
“Because Elena’s adoption had not been finalized.”
Molly’s voice cracked.
“What happened to her?”
“Officially, she entered another adoption.”
“Officially?”
Adrian looked down.
“The records were sealed.”
Molly moved toward him.
“You had fifteen years to tell me.”
“I didn’t know who you were until recently.”
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“Why three weeks?”
“Because Victor asked me to review old estate documents before restructuring the trust.”
Victor’s face hardened.
“You found Grace.”
Adrian nodded.
“Elena had written a letter.”
“To whom?”
“Molly.”
Adrian reached inside his damaged jacket.
He removed a sealed envelope.
Molly could barely breathe.
Her name was written across it.
Not in Elena’s handwriting.
Someone else had addressed it later.
“Who opened it?”
“No one.”
Molly took the envelope.
Her fingers shook.
Inside were three pages.
The first began:
Dear Molly,
If you ever receive this, something happened before I could keep my promise.
Molly stopped.
Victor looked away, giving her privacy even in a crowded warehouse.
She read.
Elena told her everything.
She had met Molly during her volunteer work.
She had fallen in love with Grace immediately.
She intended to complete the adoption after graduation.
She wanted Molly to know Grace would grow up knowing her birth mother had loved her.
Then the letter changed.
Elena wrote that she had discovered criminal records connected to her father.
She feared something might happen.
If it did, she wanted Grace kept away from the Hastings family until the danger passed.
At the bottom were three names.
Adrian Pierce.
Daniel Russo.
Linda Higgins.
Molly looked at her mother’s name.
“My mother knew?”
Adrian shook his head.
“I don’t think Elena ever gave her the letter.”
Russo stared.
“I never saw this.”
Victor asked, “Why were you named?”
Russo looked broken.
“I helped Elena once.”
“With what?”
“She asked how to report financial crimes anonymously.”
Victor absorbed that.
Adrian pointed to the second page.
“There’s more.”
Molly continued.
Elena had created a small trust for Grace.
Not a fortune.
Enough for education and housing.
But her father later merged it into a Hastings family holding company.
Through legal technicalities, Grace’s beneficiary interest remained.
When Victor restructured the family trust, Adrian discovered it.
Molly looked up.
“So Grace is the beneficiary.”
Adrian nodded.
“Not you.”
“Then why did Laurent say me?”
“Because he misunderstood the document.”
Victor took the paperwork.
“The trust lists ‘Molly Higgins, natural guardian’?”
Adrian nodded.
“If Grace was ever located.”
Molly felt dizzy.
“Is she alive?”
Adrian looked at her.
“Yes.”
Molly stopped breathing.
“Where?”
“I found her.”
Victor stepped forward.
“Where is she?”
Adrian looked toward the warehouse entrance.
“She’s twenty minutes away.”
Molly’s heart hammered.
“Take me.”
Adrian hesitated.
“There’s something you need to know first.”
“No.”
“Molly—”
“Take me to my daughter.”
“You need to understand why I didn’t tell you.”
“I don’t care.”
“You will.”
Molly stepped closer.
Adrian’s voice softened.
“Grace knows who you are.”
Molly froze.
“What?”
“She found you two years ago.”
The words hurt more than Molly expected.
“She knew?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t she contact me?”
Adrian looked toward Linda.
Molly followed his eyes.
Her mother stood near the ambulance entrance.
Linda’s face had changed.
Molly stared.
“Mom?”
Linda began crying.
Molly’s stomach dropped.
“You knew.”
Linda shook her head.
“Molly—”
“You knew she was alive.”
“I found out last year.”
“You knew.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“From my own daughter?”
Linda covered her mouth.
“She asked me not to tell you.”
Molly’s anger broke.
“Why?”
Linda looked toward Victor.
“Because Grace believed the Hastings family killed Elena.”
Victor lowered his eyes.
Molly whispered, “Did she hate me?”
“No.”
“Then why didn’t she come?”
Linda took Molly’s hands.
“She was afraid.”
“Of what?”
“That if anyone discovered she was Elena’s adopted daughter, they would kill her too.”
Molly’s legs weakened.
Victor looked at Adrian.
“Where is Grace now?”
Adrian checked his phone.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Adrian dialed.
No answer.
He dialed again.
Nothing.
Molly grabbed his arm.
“Where is she?”
“A safe apartment in Queens.”
Victor said, “Sal.”
Sal was already moving.
Molly followed.
Victor stopped her.
“No.”
She turned.
“My daughter is there.”
“If someone knows her location—”
“I lost fifteen years.”
“Molly.”
“I am not losing another minute.”
Victor saw there was no argument that could stop her.
They drove fast.
Russo called ahead.
No response from the apartment.
Molly sat rigidly beside Victor.
He did not speak.
He simply stayed there.
The building was quiet when they arrived.
Fourth floor.
Apartment 4C.
The door stood open.
Molly’s heart stopped.
“Grace?”
Victor motioned her behind him.
They entered.
The apartment was empty.
A cup of tea remained warm on the kitchen counter.
A chair had been knocked over.
On the floor lay a silver necklace.
Molly picked it up.
A tiny pendant hung from the chain.
The letter G.
Her knees nearly buckled.
Victor examined the room.
“No blood.”
Molly looked at him.
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”
“No.”
Sal found a phone on the couch.
Grace’s.
The screen was cracked.
A message notification glowed.
Molly picked it up.
One new voicemail.
Unknown caller.
She pressed play.
A young woman’s frightened voice filled the room.
“Mom?”
Molly stopped breathing.
Grace continued.
“If you hear this, please don’t come looking for me.”
A pause.
Then she whispered:
“He knows you stopped the fork.”
The recording ended.
Molly stared at the phone.
Victor looked toward the open bedroom door.
May you like
A shadow moved behind it.
Someone was still inside.
