Chapter 3

Danny got me a hotel room in New Haven — forty minutes from Greenwich, close enough to

act, far enough to think. By 4 p.m. he had retained a family law attorney named Beatriz

Okafor, who specialized in CPS reversal cases and who arrived at the hotel by 6.

Beatriz was fifty, Nigerian-British, and terrifying in a way that made me feel safe for the first

time in twelve hours.

“Tell me everything,” she said, pulling a legal pad from her bag. “I don’t need the emotional

parts. Just the facts. In order.”

I did.

When I finished, Beatriz looked at Danny. Danny looked at Beatriz. Then Beatriz turned back

to me.

“Maya. I want to be honest with you. Based on what you’ve told me, there are three

possibilities, and they’re all bad.”

“I’m listening.”

“One. The baby you’ve been raising is not biologically yours or Ethan’s. Which means a

hospital swap at birth, or a deliberate substitution, occurred. Likely criminal.”

“Two.”

“Two. The baby is biologically Ethan’s but not yours. Which means Ethan had an affair, the

mother gave birth, and the child was placed with you through a concealed adoption or

hospital-level fraud. Also criminal.”

“Three.”

“Three. The baby is biologically yours but not Ethan’s. Which is the least legally damaging,

but would explain Ethan’s behavior and his mother’s desire to remove you from the child’s

life.”

Danny spoke up. “There’s a fourth option Beatriz is being too polite to mention.”

“Which is?”

“The baby is neither of yours, and Ethan and his mother orchestrated the substitution

themselves — for reasons we haven’t yet uncovered.”

The room went quiet.

Beatriz nodded once. “Four it is. And based on the paternity test your nurse mentioned

being ordered in September — six months after Leo’s birth — I suspect option four is

correct. Which is why they needed you out of the house.”

I felt cold in a way that had nothing to do with the hotel’s air conditioning.

“Why would they do that? Why substitute a baby?”

“I don’t know. Yet.” Beatriz set down her pen. “But we need to answer three questions

before anything else. One: whose baby is Leo biologically? Two: where is your actual

biological child? Three: what does the Harrow family gain from this substitution that justifies

the risk of federal kidnapping charges?”

Federal kidnapping charges.

The words hit me like a physical object.

Because somewhere — in this world, right now — there was a six-month-old baby who was

biologically mine.

A baby I had never met.

A baby someone else was raising.

A baby whose face I wouldn’t recognize if I passed them in a grocery store.

I pressed both hands against my mouth.

Danny’s face crumpled. Beatriz stood, walked to the minibar, and brought me a bottle of

water.

“Drink,” she said. “And then we begin.”

I drank.

My phone buzzed. A text from Ethan.

“Maya. Please come home. This has all gotten out of hand. We can work this out.”

I stared at the message.

Then a second one.

“Leo is asking for you.”

My hand closed around the phone so tight my knuckles went white. Because Ethan was a lot

of things. Manipulative. Weak. Complicit. But he wasn’t stupid.

He wouldn’t have said “Leo is asking for you” unless he wanted me to believe the baby was

safe and accessible.

Which meant: Leo wasn’t with Diana. Leo wasn’t with CPS. Leo was at our house.

Which meant Ethan had quietly convinced CPS to leave the baby in his custody.

Which meant Diana needed me arrested and removed, but she needed the baby close —

because the substituted baby was still useful for something.

“Beatriz.”

“Yes?”

“Ethan just told me the baby is at the house. Which means either Ethan is bait, or there’s

something in that house Diana still needs.”

Beatriz’s expression sharpened. “Or both.”

I typed a reply to Ethan with a steady hand:

“I’m coming home tomorrow morning. 10 a.m. I want to talk.”

He wrote back instantly: “I love you. We’ll fix this.”

I didn’t respond.

I looked at Beatriz and Danny.

“Tomorrow I walk back into that house. But not to talk to Ethan.”

“Then why?” Danny asked.

“Because there’s something Ethan doesn’t want me to find. And I have one shot to find it

before Diana realizes I’m still hunting.”