The Aunt Who Never Stopped Searching
Chapter 07 - The Aunt Who Never Stopped Searching
Mara Blake met me in a diner outside the city.
She was forty-two, a nurse, divorced, and exhausted in the way people get when they have spent years fighting systems bigger than themselves.
She brought a binder.
Not for drama.
For survival.
Court letters. Returned mail. Requests for information. Copies of certified forms. Notes from lawyers she could no longer afford.
Her brother, Evan, had been Noah’s father.
“He wasn’t dangerous,” she said.
“Vanessa said he was.”
“Vanessa says whatever lets her sleep.”
Mara pushed a photograph across the table.
A younger Vanessa stood beside a blond man holding a baby.
Noah.
“Evan and Rachel—Vanessa—were never married,” Mara said. “They fought constantly. She wanted a different life. He wanted to keep the baby.”
“What happened?”
“She left.”
“At Fairview?”
Mara shook her head.
“Not at first. She left Evan when Noah was three. Took the child. Evan filed for custody. Then she disappeared.”
“What happened to Evan?”
Her eyes lowered.
“He died eleven months later. Construction accident.”
I sat back.
“Did he know Noah was in care?”
“No. By the time we found out, the records were tangled under different names. Conrad Hale had lawyers everywhere.”
“Why would he block you from getting Noah?”
Mara’s mouth hardened.
“Because Noah was proof.”
“Proof of what?”
“That his perfect daughter had abandoned her child.”
I thought of Conrad on television talking about family values. I thought of his charitable foundation. I thought of the wedding guest list filled with donors and politicians.
Mara tapped the binder.
“I filed for kinship placement twice. Both times, anonymous allegations appeared.”
“What allegations?”
“That I abused prescription drugs. That my home was unsafe. That I was mentally unstable.”
“Were any true?”
“No.”
“Were they investigated?”
“Yes. Cleared every time.”
“Then why didn’t you get him?”
She gave me a tired smile.
“Because being cleared six months later doesn’t give a child six months back.”
I looked at the binder.
“Can Noah live with you now?”
Her face changed.
“I hope so.”
“What’s stopping it?”
“A new petition was filed this morning.”
“By who?”
She did not answer immediately.
She did not need to.
May you like
Vanessa had spent six years denying Noah existed.
Now that the whole country knew his name, she wanted custody.
