Chapter 6 - The Adoption File
Adrian and Victoria had adopted Lily when she was eight months old.
That was the story.
Private domestic adoption.
Birth mother unable to parent.
Birth father unknown.
Everything legal.
Or so Adrian believed.
The agency had closed four years later.
Founder:
Marion Chase.
Dead.
Records transferred to state archives.
Adrian obtained copies through his attorney.
His application.
Home study.
Placement agreement.
Final adoption decree.
All legitimate.
Then one document stood out.
A private donation.
$750,000 to the agency’s affiliated family foundation.
Paid two weeks before Lily’s placement.
From Ashford Family Trust.
Adrian never authorized it.
Who did?
Eleanor.
He confronted her.
“I donated to help.”
“Three quarters of a million dollars?”
“Your wife was desperate.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“Did you buy my daughter?”
“No!”
“Then why pay before placement?”
Eleanor insisted Marion Chase requested support for emergency housing programs.
Maybe.
Then another record surfaced.
Lily had not been the first infant matched to Adrian and Victoria.
There had been another girl.
Placement canceled forty-eight hours before finalization.
Why?
Birth family changed its mind.
Then Lily suddenly became available.
Unusually fast.
Victoria had always called it fate.
Now Adrian wondered who arranged the fate.
Then his investigator found Lily’s original birth certificate.
Mother:
Madeline Cross.
Age twenty-one.
Address in Vermont.
No father listed.
Madeline disappeared from public records after the adoption.
But her mother remained.
Elaine Cross.
Adrian called.
The older woman cried immediately.
“I knew someone would come eventually.”
“Who?”
“The Ashfords.”
Adrian felt cold.
“Why?”
Elaine claimed Madeline never wanted to surrender Lily.
She changed her mind after birth.
Then someone threatened her.
Who?
A lawyer.
Name unknown.
He claimed Lily’s father came from a powerful family.
If Madeline fought the adoption, they would destroy her.
Drugs planted.
Custody challenge.
Financial ruin.
Madeline panicked.
Signed.
Then disappeared from her mother’s life.
Adrian closed his eyes.
“What happened to her?”
“I don't know.”
Last contact six years earlier.
Then Elaine said something stranger.
“Madeline didn't know the father’s real name.”
“What name did she know?”
“Alex Reed.”
Adrian knew no Alex Reed.
Then Elaine described him.
Dark hair.
Gray eyes.
Scar near right eyebrow.
Adrian stopped.
His older brother, Julian.
Dead eleven years.
Julian Ashford had that scar.
Was Lily Julian’s daughter?
That would make Lily Adrian’s biological niece.
Possible.
But timeline?
Lily was seven.
Born four years after Julian died.
Impossible.
Unless frozen sperm?
No.
Or Elaine’s description matched someone else.
Then Victoria called.
Finally.
Weak voice.
“Adrian?”
“Where are you?”
“I’m safe.”
“Where?”
“I can’t tell you yet.”
“Why?”
“Because the person who moved Lily’s adoption file knows I found Rebecca.”
Adrian gripped the phone.
“Who is Lily’s father?”
Victoria whispered:
“Not Julian.”
Relief.
Then:
“It’s worse.”
The call broke.
May you like
Before disconnecting, Victoria said one final sentence.
“Open Richard’s military box.”
