Chapter 12 - TWO BABIES, ONE SECRET|
Katarina admitted that Maria had helped another pregnant woman escape the same network of threats. The woman had given birth on the night Sarah was born, but her child disappeared from the official records.
"I never saw the baby after the hospital transfer," Katarina said. "Maria believed the child had been taken somewhere safe."
"Who was the mother?"
"Her name was Evelyn Hart."
Sarah searched the name through the records Elena had collected. A woman matching Evelyn's description had briefly worked for a Montgomery-owned company before disappearing from public records.
The discovery made the connection more disturbing.
Evelyn had not been related to either family. She was a junior financial analyst who had uncovered suspicious transfers between several corporate accounts. Shortly afterward, she was accused of stealing confidential documents and dismissed.
"Was she hiding from the Montgomerys?" Sarah asked.
"She was hiding from people who wanted those documents buried," Katarina replied.
Elena traced Evelyn's employment history to a legal dispute settled privately more than twenty-five years earlier. The settlement named Daniel Whitmore as counsel for the company.
A second file referenced a child placed with temporary guardians in Ohio.
Sarah felt the ground shift beneath her.
"Could that child have been in the same foster system as me?"
"Possibly," Elena said. "But we need actual records before drawing conclusions."
They submitted a formal request to the relevant adoption authority. Because the case involved protected identities, the process would take time.
Meanwhile, Katarina revealed that Maria had maintained a hidden journal. The journal had been stored in a bank deposit box, but the box was closed after Maria's death. Its contents had supposedly been returned to her legal representative.
That representative was Daniel Whitmore.
Sarah laughed bitterly.
"Every road leads to him."
"Because he was the person who managed the records," Elena said. "That makes him central to the investigation, not automatically guilty of every crime."
Stefan arranged for his attorneys to contact Whitmore's office. The response came within hours: Whitmore denied wrongdoing and threatened legal action against anyone spreading defamatory allegations.
Then he requested a private meeting with Sarah.
She agreed, provided Elena attended.
Whitmore arrived in a gray suit carrying no documents.
"Your mother was a complicated woman," he began.
"Don't talk about her as if you knew her better than I did."
He smiled faintly.
"I knew enough to understand that some truths destroy lives."
"Then let me decide what I can survive."
For the first time, his expression hardened.
"You think Stefan Volkov is the hero of this story. Ask him why he signed the document that sent Maria away."
Sarah turned toward her father.
Stefan's face had gone pale.
"I never signed such a document."
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Whitmore placed a photocopy on the table.
At the bottom was a signature that looked unmistakably like Stefan's.
