Chapter 6 - The Woman at the Front Door.
The custody order gave Julian twenty minutes to prepare Leo for transfer.
Bianca stood in the foyer beside a court-appointed supervisor, dressed as if she were attending a board meeting.
Sophia packed bottles, blankets, and the feeding chart with hands that refused to stop shaking.
Julian held Leo against his chest and asked how a judge could sign an order without hearing him.
Grant said the new evidence of stolen files and unstable household conditions required immediate protection.
The cruelty of the strategy became clear.
Bianca's group had taken the evidence and then used its disappearance as proof that Julian could not secure his own home.
Sophia tucked Elena's cream blanket around Leo.
Bianca removed it.
"That stays here." Leo began to fuss.
Julian told her the blanket calmed him.
Bianca called it an unhealthy attachment to the past.
Sophia stepped between the supervisor and the door.
"His feeding routine is documented by Dr.
Hart." The supervisor reviewed the chart and ordered Bianca to follow it.
Bianca agreed with a smile that disappeared as soon as the supervisor turned away.
Before leaving, she told Sophia that employment agencies rarely recovered from fraud investigations.
"By tomorrow, no family in this city will hire you." "Then I will spend tomorrow proving what you did," Sophia replied.
The doors closed behind Leo.
The mansion became unbearably still.
Julian looked toward the empty nursery and nearly followed the silence into despair.
Sophia placed a clean bottle in his hand.
"We prepare for his next feeding." "He isn't here." "He will be." Her certainty gave him something solid to stand on.
Marcus revealed that he had stored an encrypted copy of the recovered files online.
The thieves had taken only the physical evidence.
However, the court might question digital copies unless they found the originals.
Nora called from an unknown number.
She apologized for changing her statement.
Grant had threatened to report her mother, whose visa paperwork was under review.
Nora said Celeste had taken the files to a private storage suite at the Hawthorne Hotel.
Julian wanted to go personally.
Sophia reminded him that Bianca was building a picture of an impulsive father.
Marcus went with a licensed investigator instead.
At the hotel, the storage suite was empty.
The only item left behind was a hospital bracelet bearing Elena Rossi's name.
Someone had written a locker number across the back.
Julian recognized the number as belonging to the hospital family chapel.
Sophia and Julian drove there with the investigator.
Inside the locker, they found copies of trust statements and a small voice recorder.
Elena's voice filled the chapel.
She described the missing money and named Grant.
Then she said something Julian had never expected.
"Bianca did not begin this.
She is afraid of the person who did." Footsteps sounded beyond the chapel door.
Grant entered alone and locked it behind him.
May you like
"You should have let the past stay buried," he said.
THE NANNY WHO GAVE HIM HOPE
