Chapter 2 - She Said She Found Her
The officer walked to the far side of my living room and spoke into his radio with his back to us. I only caught pieces.
"...yeah, it's a match... confirmed... I need a supervisor out here... no, now."
Renee sat perfectly still on my couch. She wasn't crying. She wasn't explaining. She just followed the officer with her eyes, calm and hollowed-out, like someone who had already lived through the worst part and was just waiting for everyone else to catch up.
"Renee." My voice cracked on her name. "Baby. Please. Tell me what is happening in my house right now."
She looked at me for a long moment.
"I found her, Mom."
"Found who? Found what?"
Her eyes went to the baby, then back to me.
"She was alone in a room. No food in there. Nobody coming for her." Her jaw tightened. "Nobody was coming."
The cold went straight through my chest.
Before I could get another word out, my front door opened again. The second officer stepped in, and behind him came a woman I'd never seen — mid-forties, dark jacket, no uniform, moving through my house like she'd been called to it.
She went straight to Renee, crouched in front of her, and said something too low for me to hear.
Renee nodded once.
The woman straightened up, turned to me, and spoke quietly.
"Your daughter didn't take this baby."
She let that sit for a second.
"She's the reason we knew this child existed. She's the one who called us — ten days ago. We just weren't able to tell you any of it."
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I turned to look at my daughter.
She was already looking at me. And for the first time since she'd walked through my door with a stranger's newborn in her arms, Renee's face came apart, and she started to cry.
