Healthy.
Completely innocent.
But she wasn’t my daughter.
That somehow made everything even more heartbreaking.
None of this was the children’s fault.
Adults had created the deception.
Adults exchanged babies.
Adults moved money.
Adults rehearsed lies until they sounded like truth.
And trapped in the middle were two helpless baby girls and one frightened five-year-old boy who had sensed that something deeply wrong had entered his home.
Daniel was arrested later that afternoon.
Nicole was taken into custody two days afterward.
I gave my statement while stopping repeatedly to vomit, fighting through panic attacks, and slowly recovering memories I never wanted back.
The detectives treated me with compassion.
They also questioned me relentlessly.
Oddly enough, both responses felt deserved.
