Chapter 6 - The Man Who Abandoned Us Returned with a Warning, but His Story Fell Apart Under One Simple Question
Tyler looked older than thirty-two.
His jacket hung loosely from his shoulders.
He said he had been hiding.
He said the foundation threatened him.
He said he came to save Leo.
I listened without inviting him inside.
"What was Leo's first word?"
Tyler blinked.
"What?"
"His first word."
He guessed mama.
It had been light.
Leo loved the lamp above his crib.
Tyler had left before that morning.
I had spent years inventing excuses for him.
I was finished.
Detective Park questioned him separately.
Tyler admitted taking payments from Bright Harbor.
He claimed they were research reimbursements.
His bank statements suggested otherwise.
Roman wanted him arrested immediately.
Park insisted on evidence.
I agreed with her.
My anger was not a search warrant.
That afternoon, Tyler admitted something worse.
He had signed a consent form for Leo.
The foundation promised to cover medical expenses.
But the consent was signed before Leo's birth.
"How could you sign for a child not born?"
Tyler stared at his shoes.
"They said it was routine."
I felt the room tilt.
He had sold access to our family.
And called it paperwork.
Park recovered an address from his phone.
It belonged to a storage facility near the river.
Inside, police found boxes of patient files.
Some names had been crossed out.
Others carried red stars.
Leo's name had three.
At the bottom of his page was a handwritten note.
PRIORITY WITNESS — MOTHER MUST NOT KNOW.
I read it twice.
"Witness to what?"
May you like
Park's expression hardened.
"That's what we're going to find out."
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