Chapter 2 - The Stolen Life
We moved the conversation into the living room, leaving the Arizona couple outside to speak with the detective.
Hannah and Paul were victims of Martha's scam too, but they were promised a full refund.
Abigail sat on the edge of my floral sofa, looking around the house she had never been allowed to enter.
I poured her a glass of water, my hands shaking so badly that water spilled onto the floor.
"How did this happen?" I asked, sitting next to my sons to protect them from the shock.
Abigail took a deep breath, her gaze falling to the worn hardwood floor.
"Martha could never have children, and it drove her into a deep depression," Abigail explained.
"When I was nineteen, I got pregnant with you, and the father wanted nothing to do with us."
She wiped a tear from her cheek before continuing the heartbreaking story.
"Martha offered to help me raise you, and I trusted my big sister completely."
"But one afternoon, I came home from work, and the apartment was completely empty."
I felt a sickening knot form in my stomach as the puzzle pieces finally snapped together.
"Dad helped her?" I asked, thinking of the man who had always been so quiet and distant.
Abigail nodded, confirming that my adoptive father had funded the escape and the fake birth certificates.
"They vanished without a trace, and the police back then dismissed it as a family dispute," she whispered.
"I spent all my savings hiring private investigators, but Martha changed your names and moved constantly."
She reached into her purse and pulled out the photograph Caleb had mentioned.
It was the picture of Abigail holding me as a newborn, smiling brightly.
"Your father felt guilty at the end of his life," Abigail said.
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"He secretly amended the deed to leave me half the house, knowing Martha would eventually try to sell it."
That guilt was the only reason I finally found my way back to my real mother.
