Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN WHO NEVER EXISTED
Nathan’s file answered part of the question.
With Michael and his wife’s permission, their attorney provided copies of the communications they believed came from Emily.
The woman in those messages was recognizable.
That made it worse.
She liked tomato soup.
Emily liked tomato soup.
She worked in healthcare administration.
Emily managed billing for an orthopedic practice.
She had lost her mother at twenty-four.
True.
She was frightened about money.
Sometimes true.
She had trouble sleeping because the baby kicked hardest at night.
Very true.
Daniel had built a false woman using real pieces of his wife.
But he changed the parts that mattered.
The fictional Emily was unmarried.
Abandoned.
Financially desperate.
Certain she could not raise a child alone.
The messages referred to the baby as “her.”
Months before Emily and Daniel publicly shared the sex.
Emily covered her mouth.
“He was sending them things I told him in bed.”
Cynthia did not answer.
One message included a photograph of Emily’s hand holding an ultrasound printout.
Her wedding ring had been cropped out.
Another showed the corner of their kitchen.
Nothing identifying.
Nothing accidental.
Emily looked at Nathan.
“How did they meet him?”
“He contacted an adoption attorney initially.”
“Using my name?”
“He presented himself as the expectant mother’s support person.”
“My husband.”
“Yes.”
“Did nobody speak to me?”
“The first attorney insisted on independent communication with the expectant mother.”
Emily waited.
Nathan continued.
“Daniel stopped working with her.”
Of course he did.
He later found an online matching community where prospective adoptive families sometimes connected informally before involving licensed professionals.
Michael and his wife, Laura, were desperate after three failed adoption attempts.
Daniel found them there.
“He told them I didn’t trust agencies?”
“Yes.”
“He told them I was afraid people would pressure me?”
“Yes.”
Emily laughed bitterly.
“He used safeguards as the reason I couldn’t be contacted.”
Nathan nodded.
Eventually Michael and Laura insisted on involving their Wisconsin attorney.
Daniel created the fake email account.
He provided a photographed driver’s license.
Emily stared.
“My license?”
“Altered.”
The photograph was hers.
The address had been changed.
The signature looked close enough to make her uncomfortable.
Emily remembered Daniel asking for a photo of her license because he was “updating the car insurance.”
Her hands went cold.
The attorney never completed an adoption placement.
No legal consent existed.
No child could legally have been transferred simply because money changed hands.
But pregnancy-related assistance had been paid while the attorney tried to move the arrangement toward proper legal channels.
Then Emily went to the hospital in April.
And Daniel killed the fictional baby.
Not the real one.
The story.
Cynthia leaned back.
“So why did they start looking for him again?”
Nathan answered.
“Because Daniel asked for more money after the supposed loss.”
Emily stared.
“What?”
Michael’s attorney received an email two weeks after the alleged death.
The sender said there were medical bills.
Funeral-related expenses.
Rent arrears.
Michael and Laura sent another $11,000.
Then Daniel vanished.
Emily closed the file.
For the first time, she understood why three men had walked toward him at O’Hare.
May you like
They were not coming for her daughter.
They were coming for the story Daniel had sold about her death.
