The System’s Puppet

Seven years ago, Jessica gave birth to Nathan Lynch's child, accepted enough money to live comfortably, and walked away. Now a small boy named Elliot, muddy and scratched, knocks on her door and calls her Mom. He says the Lynch family calls him a bastard, and that his father, who is sick, told him not to come find her.

Jessica wants nothing to do with the child or the family that replaced her with Amelia. Yet she washes him, feeds him, and lets him sleep in her bed, where he sobs in his sleep about a father who begs him to remember his mother. When she finally drives him home, Nathan and Amelia are leading the search for the boy, and Nathan claims Jessica looks familiar.

A flicker of hatred from Amelia, a grip on Jessica's wrist, and scars hidden beneath her sleeve suggest the past is far from finished with her.