Chapter 4 - The Hunt for Truth
I did not sleep for three days.
I turned our dining room into a war room, covering the table with legal pads, printed statutes, and financial records.
If the FBI wouldn't give me the names, I was going to find them myself.
Luke took time off work, bringing me food and coffee, acting as an anchor while I dove into the darkest parts of my family's history.
I started by tracing the insurance agency's public filings.
I used my credentials as a corporate lawyer to access shell company registries in offshore tax havens.
"Look at this," I told Luke late on a Tuesday night, pointing at my glowing laptop screen.
"Natalie wasn't just randomly finding buyers."
"She was exclusively targeting clients of a high-end concierge medical practice in the city."
Luke leaned over my shoulder, reading the highlighted names.
"These are politicians, actors, venture capitalists," he murmured in disbelief.
"She built a boutique baby market for the one percent."
I cross-referenced the dates of Dr. Evans' fraudulent wire transfers with public birth announcements in high society columns.
It was a painstaking, maddening process.
But then, a pattern began to emerge.
Exactly nine months after the largest wire transfer hit Natalie's account, a prominent tech billionaire couple announced the arrival of their miracle baby.
"Marcus and Eleanor Sterling," I read aloud, my heart hammering against my ribs.
"They struggled with infertility for a decade."
"Suddenly, they have a daughter named Mia."
I clicked on a public relations photo from a recent charity gala.
Eleanor Sterling was holding a beautiful, blonde-haired toddler in a pink dress.
I zoomed in on the child's face.
The breath was completely knocked out of my lungs.
She had Luke's distinct dimple on her left cheek.
She had the exact same almond-shaped green eyes that stared back at me in the mirror every morning.
"Luke," I whispered, tears instantly blurring my vision.
Luke stared at the screen, his hand covering his mouth as a choked sob escaped his throat.
"That's her," he said, his voice breaking.
"That is our daughter."
We had found her.
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But discovering her identity was only the first step of an impossible journey.
The Sterlings were billionaires with armies of lawyers, and they believed Mia was legally theirs.
