Sixteen years ago I found a stranger’s baby in a car trunk — I never imagined she’d been left there for me.

Lori’s mother.

I am not writing to take her from you. I am writing because sixteen years ago I made a choice I have never once regretted, and today is the day I was told I would finally be allowed to explain it, if you were willing to hear it.

Lori’s biological father is a man named Victor Prescott. You may not know that name, and I hope you never had a reason to. He is — was — dangerous in a way that doesn’t show up in a background check, the