Chapter 8 - Before Zayden Met Jessica
Jessica remembered the photograph only after seeing it.
“I was seventeen.”
Her fingertips trembled over the image.
“Where?”
“Denver.”
Zayden stared at her.
“You said you went there before we met.”
“I did.”
“Carmen was there?”
“I didn’t know her.”
“You’re standing three feet away.”
“There were dozens of people.”
Jessica closed her eyes.
“It was a fundraiser.”
“For what?”
“A children’s foundation.”
Carmen had chaired children’s charities for decades.
Rachel Holloway had volunteered with one.
Jessica attended because her mother made her.
“I remember Carmen now,” Jessica whispered. “Not her name. Her face.”
Zayden sat beside her.
“Did you speak?”
“Maybe once.”
“Did Rachel know her?”
“I think so.”
The photograph showed something else.
Behind Carmen stood Raymond.
Alive.
Smiling.
His hand rested on the shoulder of a young man.
The man was partially cut off by the edge.
Only half his face showed.
Detective Vargas enlarged the scan.
Zayden did not recognize him.
Jessica did.
“I’ve seen him.”
“Where?”
She pointed toward the apartment evidence photos.
“The dinner.”
One of Carmen’s guests.
Howard Bell.
The man who told police he thought making Olivia wash dishes was “strict parenting.”
Zayden called Vargas immediately.
Howard’s full identity was Howard Bell Morrison.
Morrison.
The blue ledger contained C. Morrison.
Could be coincidence.
Investigators searched further.
Howard Morrison had changed his legal surname to Bell twelve years earlier.
His mother had been Catherine Morrison.
C. Morrison.
Zayden stared at the old fundraiser photograph again.
“What was the foundation?”
Jessica remembered the name slowly.
New Horizons Family Initiative.
The organization no longer existed.
It had shut down after allegations of financial mismanagement seventeen years earlier.
No criminal charges were filed.
But archived articles mentioned its program.
Private adoption assistance.
Jessica’s expression changed.
“My aunt talked about a baby.”
Zayden felt cold.
They searched foundation records.
Carmen served on the board.
Raymond provided funding.
Rachel Holloway worked as a records coordinator.
Catherine Morrison was the executive director.
Richard Vale served as legal counsel.
Dr. Arthur Sloan was listed as a consulting psychiatrist.
Every major name from Raymond’s ledger had been connected to the same organization.
Nearly twenty years ago.
“What happened there?” Jessica asked.
Vargas looked grim.
“That’s what we need to find out.”
Public records revealed complaints from several birth mothers claiming they were pressured into adoption arrangements.
Some alleged documents had been altered.
Others claimed promised financial support disappeared.
Most complaints were settled privately.
The foundation dissolved.
No one went to prison.
Rachel Holloway resigned six months before closure.
Three months later, Jessica’s mother cut Rachel out of the family.
“That can’t be random,” Jessica said.
It wasn’t.
Colorado authorities located a former New Horizons employee named Susan Bellamy.
She agreed to speak by video call.
Susan was seventy-one.
At first, she denied remembering Carmen.
Then Vargas showed her the fundraiser photo.
Susan’s expression hardened.
“I remember all of them.”
“What happened at New Horizons?” Vargas asked.
Susan laughed without humor.
“You want the public version or the version that kept me awake for fifteen years?”
“The second.”
Susan leaned closer to the camera.
“They moved children.”
Jessica frowned.
“Adoptions?”
“Sometimes legally.”
The room went quiet.
“What does that mean?”
“It means paperwork could be adjusted for families willing to pay.”
Zayden felt nauseated.
Susan continued.
“Birth fathers disappeared from records. Medical histories changed. Waiting lists were manipulated. If someone influential wanted a child, they got priority.”
“Did Carmen participate?”
“I never saw her forge anything.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
Susan looked away.
“She brought donors.”
“What kind?”
“Rich couples.”
“Was Raymond involved?”
“I thought he was.”
Zayden’s stomach tightened.
“Thought?”
“Years later I wondered if he was trying to figure out what she was doing.”
Jessica asked, “Rachel Holloway?”
Susan’s expression softened.
“Rachel found the files.”
“What files?”
“The children whose records didn’t match.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“Ten?”
Susan shook her head.
“More.”
“Fifty?”
Silence.
Jessica covered her mouth.
Susan continued.
“Rachel copied everything.”
“What happened to the copies?”
“She said she hid them.”
“And then?”
“Carmen found out.”
Jessica whispered, “My mother told me Rachel was unstable.”
Susan’s eyes narrowed.
“Everyone became unstable when Carmen needed them discredited.”
The same pattern.
Decades old.
“Did Rachel have a specific case she was worried about?” Vargas asked.
Susan nodded.
“One.”
“Whose?”
“A baby boy.”
Zayden felt something inside him tighten.
“What year?”
Susan gave the year.
Zayden’s birth year.
No one spoke.
Susan looked at him through the screen.
“What is your date of birth?”
He answered.
Her face changed.
“Hospital?”
He answered again.
Susan became completely still.
“Oh my God.”
Zayden leaned toward the screen.
“What?”
May you like
Susan whispered:
“You were Baby Forty-Seven.”
