Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 110550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
“I wasn’t going to tell you Digger was even more of a depraved monster unless I had something good to tell you too,” Sienna said. “We think we might’ve found Marie’s son, Jake. If we’re right, we’re that much closer to finding the other kids.”
“Wait, back up.” They had my full attention. I shoved all thoughts of that monster deep down and burned them. I was closing the door on Luca Adams for good. He didn’t get to spend his afterlife making me feel horrible too. “How did you find Jake?”
Sienna motioned to River, smiling. “He had the force of the underground network out on this one. Every homeless person in every borough in every corner of the city—all of them watching, listening, and looking for a boy that looked like Jake.”
“Wasn’t easy,” River said. “A homeless man or woman staking out a middle school—people tend to take issue with that. They kept chasing my guys off, but I just sent them back until finally, a little boy that looked exactly like how Marie described came running out of Weston Parker Middle.”
“Was it really him? Did you bring him back to Marie?”
River and Sienna shared a look. “It’s not that simple.”
“What do you mean it’s not that simple? Marie is his mother.”
River stroked my cheek. “We know, Kenzie, and he will be reunited with his mom. I’ll do whatever it takes, but what we’re saying is, it wasn’t until we got the whole truth, and then found Wesley, that we understood the full scale of Luca’s operation.”
“He wasn’t just taking children and doing who knows what to them,” Sienna added. “That’s the only part of this that’s good news. From what it looks like, Luca was privately adopting them out.”
“How do you know this?” I asked.
“That day, Jake left Weston Parker and got into a car with a dark-haired, middle-aged woman,” River said. “Sammie followed them to a townhouse in Leighbridge. Swanky place with a tire swing on the oak tree and a backyard jungle gym. We looked her up and found out she’s Angelina Forbis of Forbis Luxury. Her family sells yachts all up and down the coast.”
“She adopted Jake,” I said slowly. “The child that was kidnapped and sold by a sociopath.”
Sienna nodded. “There’s no other explanation. I mean, she enrolled him in school and drives around with him in broad daylight. She wouldn’t do that if she thought she was walking around with twenty-five to life.”
“Come on. How could Luca fake a legitimate adoption agency? Especially after she got her hands on Jake and he begged to see his mother. That woman had to know she was filling her need for a child with another mother’s misery.”
“Of course, we can’t say for sure how much Mrs. Forbis and her husband knew, but they’re wealthy, Kenzie,” River said. “They haven’t dyed his hair to change his appearance. They haven’t tried to leave the city, even though his face could end up on a milk carton any day. They could hop on one of their many yachts and sail off with their stolen child, but they’re not trying to hide. Somehow, Luca made his operation seem legitimate enough that this couple was fooled.”
I tossed my head. “Why does any of that matter? You found Jake. We need to get him back to Marie.”
“How do you think that’s going to go?” Sienna asked softly. “If he made things look real, then he had papers that looked real too. The Forbises would’ve signed things, sent in documents, gotten a birth certificate. While Marie has none of that. Luca destroyed any documents that prove she’s Jake’s mother.
“If Marie busts in there and tries to take him, she could end up arrested. Sure, a DNA test would prove she’s his mother, but it doesn’t prove anything else. Meanwhile, they’re rich and connected while she’s homeless and broke. Who wins in that situation, Kenzie?”
I looked away, jaw clenched tight. This situation was sickeningly familiar. “I’m really hoping you’re moving onto the part of the conversation where you tell me the foolproof plan to get him back.”
“We do have a plan,” River said. “If these are good people, they won’t keep a child from his mother. We’re going to talk to them, Kenzie. Tell them what’s happened and what was done to these women. Like I said, if these are good people, they’ll tell us how Luca approached them and faked a real adoption. We can use that information to track down the other kids.”
“And if they’re not good people? What does Marie think about all this?”
“Of course we asked her,” Sienna said. “We told her the minute we knew he was Jake. Marie is coming with us to speak to Mr. and Mrs. Forbis. If they refuse to do the right thing, then she’s calling the police and we won’t get in her way. But you only have to meet Marie and hear her story to know keeping her apart from Jake for another minute is wrong.”