Chapter 24

Ivy's Real Mother

The office goes silent except for the faint hum of the speakerphone still connecting us to Detective Reyes.

"Say that again." Noah's voice is low, controlled, the same tone I remember from the boardroom the night everything with Isabella finally unraveled.

"The adoption file we recovered shows Isabella Voss legally adopted a child three years ago." Papers rustle again on the other end of the line. "The child's original birth certificate lists a different name entirely, and a biological mother who is not Isabella. We're still working to identify her, the records were partially redacted, likely deliberately."

"Ivy isn't biologically hers either." Julian's voice is flat with disbelief, though he's already reaching for a legal pad, jotting notes in rapid shorthand. "Detective, do you have any indication why she'd go to such lengths to fabricate a biological connection to a child that was never hers to begin with?"

"That's part of what we're hoping Ms. Montgomery can help clarify, actually." The detective's tone shifts, careful now. "There's a handwritten note attached to the file. It references someone named Amara directly, dated roughly around the time the adoption was finalized."

My stomach twists into a knot so tight it's hard to breathe. "What does it say?"

A pause, longer this time, like the detective is weighing how much to share over the phone. "I'd rather show you in person, Ms. Montgomery. Would this afternoon work for your schedule?"

"Yes." I don't hesitate. "I'll be there."

The call ends, and for a long moment none of us speak, the implications settling heavy over the room.

"She built an entire family around a lie." Noah finally breaks the silence, his voice hollow. "Not just the accusations against you. The whole foundation of Ivy's identity. Who does that to a child?"

"Someone desperate enough to secure a permanent claim on your family, regardless of the cost." My father's voice comes from the doorway, and I realize he must have arrived sometime during the call, his expression grim as he steps into the office. "I came as soon as Julian texted me. What did I miss?"

Julian fills him in quickly, and my father's jaw tightens with every new detail, his hands curling into fists at his sides.

"There's something else." I look up at all three of them, a thought forming slowly, uncomfortably, that I can't quite shake loose. "The note mentions me by name. From around the time the adoption was finalized. That's before she ever resurfaced in Noah's life."

"Which means whatever this is," Julian says slowly, "it isn't a coincidence tied to the scandal. It's something older. Something she was planning long before she walked back into this family."

The drive to the precinct feels endless, my father silent beside me, his hand resting protectively over mine the entire way. Noah insists on coming too, despite Julian's initial hesitation about how it might look publicly, and by the time we're led into a small conference room at the station, the four of us sit crowded around a table meant for two.

Detective Reyes enters a few minutes later, a manila folder tucked under one arm, her expression carefully neutral in the practiced way of someone delivering difficult news for a living.

"Thank you for coming in so quickly." She sets the folder down, opening it to reveal a handwritten note, the paper yellowed slightly with age, tucked inside a plastic evidence sleeve. "This was found alongside the adoption paperwork. I want to be upfront, the handwriting has been verified as Isabella Voss's through comparison with other documents in our possession."

She slides the folder toward me, and I lean forward to read the faded, looping script.

*If Amara ever finds out what really happened, everything falls apart. Better she believes the child is mine by blood. Better she never learns whose daughter I actually took in, or why. Eleanor promised this would stay buried.*

The words blur slightly as I read them a second time, my pulse hammering hard enough that I can hear it in my own ears.

"Eleanor." Noah's voice comes out strangled beside me. "My mother. She's mentioned by name."

"There's more." Detective Reyes pulls a second document from the folder, sliding it across the table. "We managed to trace the original birth certificate through a sealed record request, expedited given the ongoing investigation. The biological mother's name was partially redacted in the adoption file itself, but the original certificate wasn't."

My father goes very still beside me, and something about his sudden silence makes my chest tighten with dread even before the detective finishes speaking.

"The biological mother listed is a woman named Sarah Chen." Detective Reyes glances between us, clearly not understanding the weight the name doesn't yet carry for me, though I watch my father's face drain of color entirely at the sound of it. "Does that name mean anything to any of you?"

The silence stretches unbearably long before my father finally speaks, his voice rough, barely above a whisper.

"Sarah Chen worked for the Montgomery family. Nearly twenty years ago." His hands are trembling now, gripping the edge of the table. "She was your mother's personal assistant, Amara. Before you were born."