Chapter 6 - The Missing Children
The investigation expanded rapidly as federal and state authorities joined the Lakewood Police Department. Warrants were executed on Margaret’s safety deposit boxes, her personal computer, and her contacts book.
Inside a locked steel filing cabinet in Margaret’s study, detectives uncovered a ledger containing names, dates, medical charts, and financial wire receipts dating back nearly a decade.
The ledger listed over a dozen births handled in secret.
Some mothers, like Chloe, had been coerced into compliance and kept hidden until their babies were integrated into illicit adoption channels. But as investigators began tracking down the children listed in the earlier entries of the ledger, a terrifying pattern emerged.
Three infants from previous years had no corresponding state birth certificates, no adoption court filings, and no trace in foster care systems.
Detective Brooks sat across from Margaret in the stark interrogation room, sliding a copy of the ledger across the metal table.
“Let’s talk about the children from 2022 and 2023, Margaret,” Olivia said, her voice completely devoid of warmth. “Where are they?”
Margaret sat with her hands folded neatly in her lap, wearing her orange detention jumpsuit. Her hair was unstyled, but her posture remained rigid, her chin tilted up with defiant pride.
“I placed them with good families,” Margaret said coolly. “Families who couldn't have children of their own. People vetted by love, not by government bureaucracy.”
“You didn't place them, Margaret—you sold them,” Olivia countered sharply. “You targeted vulnerable, desperate young women, isolated them, stripped them of their legal rights, and profited off their newborns. And for the ones whose mothers fought back or couldn't be controlled... what happened to them?”
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Margaret’s eyes narrowed, a flash of genuine anger breaking through her icy exterior. “I gave those children a future. If I hadn't stepped in, they would have ended up in state custody, abused, neglected, forgotten. I am a healer. I saved them.”
“You are a criminal,” Olivia said, standing up and closing her notebook. “And now you’re going to spend the rest of your life explaining your definition of healing to a federal judge.”
