Chapter 5 - The Sister at the Gate
Through the peephole of the front door, I saw the woman from the bakery video.
Rachel Reid.
She was standing on the porch wearing a dark leather jacket, sunglasses pulled up over her bleach-blonde hair, her hands shoved deep into her pockets. She looked nervous, her head turning constantly to check the street.
I unlocked the deadbolt and pulled the door open just wide enough to stand in the frame.
"Party’s over," I said flatly. "Get off my property."
Rachel didn't flinch. She took off her sunglasses, revealing sharp blue eyes lined with dark makeup.
"I know Mark’s in there," Rachel said, her voice fast and urgent. "And I know you found the flash drive under the cake board. I put it there for a reason, lady."
I narrowed my eyes. "You put it there to ruin my daughter’s life."
"I put it there because my sister has lost her mind!" Rachel hissed, leaning closer, dropping her voice to a low whisper. "Kathleen isn't at her apartment in Queens anymore. She cleared out her bank accounts two hours ago."
My stomach dropped. "What do you mean?"
"Kathleen never intended to give Mark that baby," Rachel revealed, her eyes wide with genuine panic. "She took the fifty thousand dollars Mark wired her yesterday morning! She bought a forged passport, and she’s sitting in a private rental house near Newark Airport right now, waiting for a flight to Brazil at midnight!"
Mark rushed into the hallway behind me, clutching the doorframe. "What did you say?!"
"She played you, Mark!" Rachel yelled at him, stepping past me into the foyer. "She used me to get Dr. Lawson’s clinic files, she used you for the money, and now she’s stealing your biological son! The agency doesn't know where she is! The police won't intervene without a court order because she’s legally the birth mother until the baby is born!"
Lauren slowly stepped out of the living room.
She looked small, fragile, and utterly pale in her floral dress. But the heavy, helpless tears had stopped. In their place was something I hadn't seen in my daughter's eyes for four years.
Cold, terrifying clarity.
"Where is the house in Newark?" Lauren asked, her voice dangerously calm.
Rachel turned to look at her, taken aback by Lauren’s quiet presence. "I... I have the address on my phone. But what are you going to do? Call the cops? Mark signed illegal surrogacy documents outside the state system! If the feds get involved, Mark goes to federal prison for medical fraud, and the baby gets placed in state custody!"
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Lauren walked over to the hallway closet, pulled out her coat, and turned to look at her husband.
"Mark," Lauren said, her tone as sharp as broken glass. "You are going to drive us to Newark right now. You are going to get my son back. And the moment that baby is safe in my arms, you are signing the divorce papers and getting the hell out of my life forever."
