Chapter 8 - The Sterling Foundation
Mara's investigators followed the financial records from the unauthorized prenatal testing to a Sterling-funded clinic. The clinic had billed for dozens of questionable identity-verification procedures. Several women had complained that their records were accessed without permission.
The evidence suggested Richard was building a network of private information he could use to pressure witnesses. My pregnancy wasn't the secret itself. My connection to Daniel was. Richard wanted to know whether Daniel had left a biological or legal link that could expose the people involved in Grace's abduction.
A retired nurse named Judith Hale agreed to speak with Mara. She had treated Elena after Grace's birth and remembered Richard arriving with documents he claimed were signed by Vincent. Judith had questioned the paperwork. Two days later she was dismissed.
"I should have reported him," she told us. "I was afraid of losing my license."
She gave Mara copies of appointment notes and a letter Elena had tried to send Vincent. Richard's office had intercepted it. The letter described a second safe location: an old lakeside chapel maintained by a charitable trust.
Vincent recognized the trust. His father had funded it years ago. Richard had quietly assumed control after the elder Moretti died.
When Mara requested the trust's records, the director refused and called Richard's lawyer. An hour later the chapel's caretaker reported smoke coming from a storage building.
The police arrived before the fire spread. In a metal cabinet, firefighters found an intact ledger listing payments, vehicle plates, and initials. One entry had been circled in red: E.M. TRANSFER AUTHORIZED.
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Beside it was a date from six weeks earlier.
Elena had been alive then. Someone had moved her again.
