CHAPTER 6: NOBODY GETS LEFT OUTSIDE
By morning, the story had already reached the news.
VANESSA LOCKWOOD MISSING AFTER INFANT ABANDONED AT FORMER FIANCÉ’S HOME.
Reporters gathered outside Ethan’s house.
Some described Vanessa as a frightened new mother.
Others repeated details from the canceled wedding and questioned why she had chosen Ethan.
A photograph of Emma standing on the hotel balcony appeared online.
Ethan demanded that every outlet remove it.
Most refused.
He brought Emma to Rachel’s house before sunrise.
Emma sat at the kitchen table while Rachel made pancakes she did not eat.
“Is the baby sick?” Emma asked.
“No,” Ethan said. “The doctors say she’s okay.”
“Where is Vanessa?”
“We don’t know.”
Emma looked down.
“Did someone lock her outside?”
The question struck Ethan harder than he expected.
“Something bad may have happened to her.”
Emma remained silent.
Ethan sat beside her.
“You don’t have to feel sorry for her.”
“I don’t.”
“That’s okay.”
“But I feel sorry for Lucy.”
Ethan reached for her hand.
“So do I.”
“Where will she go?”
“Child services will find a safe home.”
“Will strangers take her?”
“Maybe temporarily.”
Emma’s eyes filled with worry.
“What if she cries for her mom?”
Rachel placed a plate on the table and sat across from them.
“There are people trained to care for babies while families are being investigated.”
Emma looked at Ethan.
“Can we take care of her?”
Ethan’s answer came too quickly.
“No.”
Emma flinched.
He softened his voice.
“We’re not prepared for a baby. And we don’t know what kind of danger Vanessa brought to our home.”
“But our rules say nobody gets left outside.”
“That doesn’t mean we have to let dangerous people inside.”
Emma thought about that.
“Lucy isn’t dangerous.”
Ethan had no response.
Later that afternoon, Marissa Chen called.
Because Vanessa had named Ethan in a notarized temporary-care document found inside the carrier, child services was required to evaluate him as a possible fictive-kin placement.
Ethan declined.
His responsibility was Emma.
He would not expose her to another crisis created by Vanessa.
Rachel, however, made a different decision.
She and Daniel had completed foster-care certification two years earlier after struggling to have children. They had never accepted a placement because Daniel’s work schedule had become unpredictable.
Rachel volunteered to care for Lucy temporarily.
“You don’t owe Vanessa anything,” Ethan told her.
“This isn’t about Vanessa.”
Rachel glanced toward Emma, who was drawing flowers at the kitchen counter.
“It’s about a baby who didn’t choose any of this.”
Lucy arrived at Rachel’s home that evening with Marissa and another social worker.
Emma stood several feet away.
The baby studied her.
Emma slowly approached.
“Hi, Lucy.”
Lucy grabbed Emma’s finger.
For the first time since arriving, she stopped crying.
That night, Ethan installed additional cameras around Rachel’s house. Daniel contacted federal investigators he trusted and sent them the evidence involving Cole Strategic Holdings.
At 9:17 p.m., Emma’s tablet made a sound.
A photograph had been sent through an unknown account.
It showed Emma leaving school two days earlier.
A message appeared beneath it.
YOUR FATHER SHOULD HAVE RETURNED THE BABY.
Ethan immediately took the tablet.
May you like
A second message arrived.
THE NEXT DOOR THAT CLOSES WILL NOT OPEN AGAIN.
