Chapter 3 - Roman Offered Me Protection, but the Photograph in His Safe Proved Someone Had Watched Leo for Years
Roman wanted me behind guarded gates.
I wanted my son back.
Those were not the same thing.
Detective Park insisted I remain reachable.
She also warned Roman not to interfere.
He gave her his phone without argument.
That surprised me more than his wealth.
At his house, I refused the guest suite.
I sat in the kitchen instead.
A housekeeper named Teresa brought tea.
I could not swallow it.
Roman returned carrying a sealed folder.
"I need you to see something."
Inside were photographs of Julian Mercer.
One showed a younger Roman beside him.
Another showed a clinic parking lot.
In the corner stood a stroller.
My stroller.
I knew the torn yellow canopy.
The photograph was dated four years earlier.
"Who took this?" I asked.
Roman looked sick.
"It came from a surveillance file."
"You've been watching us?"
"No. Someone delivered it to me yesterday."
I slapped the folder shut.
A woman could survive poverty.
She could survive an awful boss.
But someone had followed my baby.
For years.
Roman told me Julian had run a medical charity.
He also admitted financing its first year.
"Was Leo ever treated there?"
I thought about a free hearing screening.
A van outside the public library.
A cheerful nurse offering stickers.
Leo had been two.
I remembered signing a clipboard.
My stomach turned.
Roman's phone rang.
Detective Park had recovered the sedan's registration.
The owner was listed as a dissolved charity.
The name was Bright Harbor Foundation.
I knew that name.
It appeared on Leo's old clinic paperwork.
And beside it was a signature.
May you like
Mine.
Only I had never signed that document.
Related Stories
