I heard the rapid clicking of his camera shutter.

“I want proof of everything,” he muttered.

“Is there anything else in the room?” I asked.

“There’s a locked cedar chest in her bedroom,” Leo said. “I’m going up there now.”

“Leo, hurry,” I said. “If she comes back with her lawyer, you’ll be trapped.”

“I’m going as fast as I can,” he said.

I heard his heavy boots climbing the wooden stairs.

He entered Josephine’s bedroom.

“The chest is at the foot of her bed,” Leo said. “The lock is old.”

A metallic scrape sounded over the line.

“It’s open,” he said.

I waited, holding my breath.

“Grace,” Leo said, his voice cracking.

“What is it?”

“Your wedding album is in here,” he said. “The pages are torn.”

My eyes filled with hot tears.

“And the baby clothes,” he added. “The little blue onesies you bought for Sam.”

“Why would she take those?” I asked, my voice breaking.

“She wanted to erase you,” Leo said. “She wanted Sam to believe she was the only mother he ever had.”

The sheer malice of it made me dizzy.