Chapter 27
CHAPTER
OVER THE NEXT several weeks, things took a surprising turn. I watched as Madison’s “helpfulness” turned manipulative and cruel. At least, it certainly seemed like she had to be responsible for the frightening things that started happening to Savannah.
First there was the credit card fiasco with Savannah’s look-alike caught on camera at the liquor store. Then there were the disappearing texts. And then … the stalker.
That was a big shock—after all, I had been following her for months. I’d never noticed anyone else watching her. Had I missed it? I would have to pay more attention.
To my surprise, I started to feel sorry for Savannah. No one deserved the shit that was being thrown her way.
In the beginning, I might have said she deserved it.
I was so angry when our baby died and Max moved on.
In the blink of an eye, he had replaced me and our baby with another girl, another baby.
I had lost my baby at ten weeks, but here was Savannah, now several months pregnant, and all of her checkups revealed a healthy, growing child. It just wasn’t fair.
One day, when Savannah, Ellie, and I were out to lunch, Savannah gasped and clutched her stomach, her eyes wide. She had felt her baby kick for the first time. It was all I could do to keep from having a full-on meltdown, right there at the table.
It was a miraculous milestone I would never experience. Seeing Savannah beam, tears shining in her eyes—I wanted to vomit. The part of me that was becoming her friend wanted to be ecstatic for her. But the darker side of me wanted to burn her alive with my rage.
I wanted to hate her. But the more I got to know her, the harder that became. Savannah was caring, compassionate, genuine—a true friend. She didn’t wish anyone ill. All she really wanted in life was to be a good friend, a good daughter, a good employee, and soon, a good mother to her child.
I tried to draw her true feelings for Max out of her. Did she want him? Was she trying to steal him? And I had to conclude: no. She truly just wanted a healthy co-parenting relationship with Max, and no more—all for the sake of her child.
The only thing that stood in the way of that? Madison.
As Savannah’s situation got more and more desperate, my resentment toward her disappeared. She had chipped away at it until it finally broke into a thousand pieces. But in its place, a deeper hatred grew within me, with a new target: Madison.
When Madison slashed Savannah’s tires and nearly got her fired, I was furious for her.
When the guy at the cell phone store found the spy app on her phone, my anger grew even more.
But it was when the woman from the Department of Children’s Services showed up to investigate Savannah that I really started to get scared for her.
Was Madison’s goal to have DCS take Savannah’s child away from her?
I could understand how Madison could be jealous—after all, it was the same way I’d felt toward her for a long time.
But wouldn’t all of this backfire on Madison eventually?
Wouldn’t Max hate her for what she was doing?
Or maybe she was trying to hurt Max too, as revenge for sleeping with Savannah?
I had to find out—what exactly was it that Madison wanted?
When Madison posted to social media that she and Max were going to be parents soon, “by unconventional means,” I got a very dark feeling in my bones. I remembered how Leslie at the country club had said Madison had been researching surrogacy. Suddenly, a horrible suspicion occurred to me.
Maybe Madison saw Savannah as the perfect surrogate.
I had to do something to help Savannah, but what?
For a while, I set my hopes on the lawyer Ellie connected Savannah with—Robert.
He’d fix everything, right? And then, Madison’s mother came in for the kill.
If I didn’t hate Madison so much, I might have been impressed at her cleverness in creating the perfect conflict of interest at Robert’s firm.
Time was running out; Savannah’s due date was getting close, and Madison was getting her way at every turn.
I couldn’t just stand by and let Savannah lose her baby—after all, if I hadn’t lost my baby, it might have been me in her situation, with Madison and her greedy family ruining my life.
Unfortunately, I ran out of time. One night, as I was hanging out with Savannah at her apartment, who should come by?
Max.
I knew my charade was ruined the second Max saw me sitting there on Savannah’s couch. His eyes went wide, the blood drained from his face. It was the first time he had set eyes on me since the day I told him our baby was gone.
I’d been found out. My friendship with Savannah was obviously no coincidence.
Now Max and Madison would know I was on to them.
It was down to the wire, and I had to move fast. We needed proof to expose Max and the Clarks.
At this point, I knew Madison wasn’t operating alone.
She had her mother, Nora Clark, behind her, greasing the wheel at every turn.
I’d seen the nasty message Nora sent Savannah, threatening to “end her” if she didn’t back down and admit that Madison would be the better mother for Max’s baby.
The woman was more than a little terrifying.
It was time to learn more about Nora Clark.
It was easy to find Nora online—she wanted to be found.
A partner in a prominent real estate firm in Marin County, Nora represented elite properties, from swanky apartments and classic homes in the city, to sprawling estates on the upper peninsula, to modern McMansions in the surrounding Bay Area suburbs.
According to an interview in a local business publication from years ago, her mother had also been a well-known real estate agent, and had taught her everything she knew.
In the article, Nora talked about her only child, her daughter Madison, who was fourteen years old at the time—a freshman at Woodgrove High.
Her husband, Charles Clark the third, was a partner in the family law firm started by Charles the first, his paternal grandfather.
Though his name was still on the wall, these days it appeared Madison’s father was mostly just a board member who consulted from time to time.
The rest of the time, he could usually be found on the golf course at the Marin County Country Club, or even more likely, sitting at the club’s well-stocked bar.
These days, it was his wife that held the family spotlight.
I started to plan my next alias—a wealthy prospective buyer in the market for a home on the upper peninsula.
I decided to go stay with my mother for a couple of days in Walnut Creek and slip away at some point to go visit Nora at her firm’s offices.
As I was getting ready to leave my mom’s, I changed into the same outfit I’d worn to the country club; it was time to play the part of the rich girl again. I scheduled an appointment with Nora at her office using my Woodgrove High alias, Samantha Henry.
I was almost there when Nora’s secretary called to say Nora was running late getting back to the office from a home appraisal, and to ask if we could push our appointment out forty-five minutes.
I said it wasn’t a problem, and asked if she could recommend a coffee shop nearby.
She said the Starbucks one block east of the office was the closest thing.
The coffee shop was busy. As I stood in line to order, I read through some new messages in the group text between me, Savannah, and Ellie.
Ellie was trying to get a final headcount for the baby shower she and Savannah’s mom were throwing for her the following Sunday.
I was about to reply that I wouldn’t miss it when the line shifted forward—and my breath caught in my throat.
There, behind the counter, was Melanie Daniels, the DCS employee sent to investigate Savannah’s pregnancy—and she was making espresso.