Chapter 8 - THE FIANCÉE IN THE ARCHIVES|
Carolyn Vanderbilt had been preparing to marry Richard Montgomery since long before Sarah understood that her own marriage was dying.
Their families had discussed the possibility when they were teenagers. Carolyn possessed the pedigree Beatrice admired, the social instincts Richard had learned to value, and the financial connections the Montgomery Foundation needed.
Sarah's arrival had disrupted that plan.
Now, with the divorce approaching, Carolyn visited the foundation's archive room and requested access to old family correspondence.
Rosa Delgado, Beatrice's longtime assistant, intercepted her.
"You shouldn't be looking for those records."
Carolyn smiled.
"That's an unusual thing to say to someone who funds this foundation."
"Some documents were never meant to be public."
"Then perhaps they shouldn't have been hidden."
Carolyn had discovered the gala accusation was planned before the event. She had overheard Beatrice discussing the missing earrings with a security consultant two days earlier.
At the time, she had assumed the scheme was meant to frighten Sarah into leaving Richard.
Now she suspected something larger.
Rosa finally admitted that Beatrice had asked her to move a small envelope from the archive to a private storage room. Rosa had obeyed without reading it, then regretted her silence when Sarah was publicly accused.
"Why tell me now?" Carolyn asked.
"Because Sarah wasn't the only person your family taught to keep quiet."
Rosa produced a photocopy of an old hospital authorization. It carried Maria's false name, the clinic's stamp, and a handwritten instruction to transfer the newborn to temporary guardianship if Maria could not be located.
The authorization had been signed by Daniel Whitmore.
Carolyn stared at it.
"Was Sarah taken from her mother?"
"That's what I fear."
Carolyn could have destroyed the copy and protected her future with Richard. Instead, she contacted Elena and offered to provide a statement.
Sarah agreed to meet her in a quiet café.
"I don't expect you to forgive me," Carolyn said. "I've laughed at things your mother-in-law said about you. I knew Richard was treating you badly, and I told myself it wasn't my business."
"Why are you helping me?"
"Because I finally understand that being accepted by a cruel family isn't the same as belonging somewhere."
Carolyn handed over the photocopy.
Sarah studied the document.
"Did you find anything else?"
"One reference to a second child."
The words made the room feel suddenly smaller.
"A second child?"
Carolyn nodded.
"The hospital authorization says Maria arrived with a companion who was also pregnant. That woman's identity was removed from the record."
"Who was she?"
"I don't know."
Sarah remembered Beatrice's final warning.
Your mother wasn't the only person who disappeared that night.
She called Stefan.
When she told him about the second child, he asked one question.
"Was the record dated April seventeenth?"
Sarah checked.
It was.
May you like
Stefan went silent.
"That was the night my younger sister vanished."
