Chapter 2: The Face in the Photograph
My hands wouldn't stop shaking as I read the same line over and over.
The lawyer leaned forward.
"Mrs.
Wilson, are you all right?"
I couldn't answer him.
My eyes were fixed on the page.
Lily's biological mother hadn't abandoned her.
She had been searching for her.
"What does this mean?" I whispered.
"How is this possible?
The file said her mother was gone.
That she had no family."
He looked down at his desk.
"That's what the original records stated.
But these new documents tell a different story.
It appears the information was…
altered."
"Altered." I repeated the word like it didn't belong in any language I knew.
"Someone changed her file on purpose?"
He didn't answer right away.
That silence was worse than anything he could have said.
"The five families," I said slowly.
"Did they find out about this?"
"Three of them did," he said quietly.
"That's why they walked away.
They were afraid of a custody challenge."
I sat back in my chair, the room suddenly feeling very small.
"And Lily's mother," I said.
"Where is she now?"
He opened to the last page of the folder and turned it toward me.
There was a name.
An address.
And a photograph.
My heart stopped.
I recognized her face.
---
The truth behind that photograph is something Mrs.
Wilson never saw coming — and it changes everything about Lily's story.
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