Chapter 5: A Shadow on the Street**
Claire spent the next three days gathering evidence outside the Montgomery offices, accompanied by Marcus. Every step was shadowed by black SUVs parked across the street—intimidations designed to drive her back into hiding. But Claire visited the retired night nurse from Cook County General, a woman named Evelyn who lived in an assisted living facility in Oak Park. Evelyn was dying of lung failure and possessed a soul too tired to keep carrying the Montgomery family’s secrets.
Sitting beside the oxygen tank, Evelyn handed Marcus an old leather-bound ledger. "Mrs. Montgomery gave the chief of staff fifty thousand dollars in cash that night," Evelyn wheezed, her frail hands trembling as she pointed to a timestamped transfer record. "They moved the baby through the freight elevator before dawn. I never forgot the girl’s screaming when she woke up empty-handed." Claire took the paper, holding the proof between her fingers. It was no longer her word against a dynasty; it was a paper trail of felony human trafficking disguised as elite philanthropy.
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