PART 4 ​​– “I FOUND MY SIGNATURE ON A DOCUMENT I’D NEVER SEEN BEFORE — AND WHEN I DISCOVERED WHAT MY EX-HUSBAND WAS PLANNING, I UNDERSTOOD WHY HE WANTED TO GET ME OUT OF THE WAY!”

“This is not my signature.”

My voice sounded strangely steady.

Police officer Maria Theodorou pushed the document a little closer.

“Are you absolutely sure?”

“Yes”.

I looked again.

My name was written in a way that looked a lot like my own.

But there was a mistake.

A small, almost insignificant mistake.

Dimitris had never noticed that, when I signed, I made a special curve on the last letter of my last name.

This curve was missing in the document.

“I didn’t sign it,” I repeated.

Maria nodded.

“A handwriting examination will be requested.”

“What exactly is this paper?”

“Part of an insurance plan application.”

“For whom?”

Maria lowered her gaze.

“For your family.”

I felt my breath hitch.

“My children?”

“The program included various coverages. We cannot yet know if it is related to what happened.”

I took a deep breath.

“I want to know everything.”

That same afternoon I contacted my lawyer, Sofia Lambrinou.

He had handled my divorce.

He knew how difficult my relationship with Dimitris was.

When I explained to her what had happened, she was silent for a while.

“Anna, we need to move carefully.”

“My children almost died!”

“I know. And that’s exactly why we must protect them as well as you.”

“What can we do?”

“We will immediately seek appropriate legal arrangements for their protection. And we will cooperate with the authorities on the documents.”

I hung up the phone and sat by the hospital window.

Outside, Thessaloniki continued to move.

Cars.

Buses.

People with bags from stores.

Life was going on normally.

I too felt like I was trapped in a nightmare.

That evening, Eleni asked to talk to me.

“Mama;”

“Yes, my love?”

“Will you be angry if I tell you something?”

I looked at her.

“I won’t be angry with you.”

He was playing nervously with the edge of the blanket.

“Dad told me not to answer your calls.”

I felt my heart tighten.

“When;”

“Before he leaves.”

“Why;”

“He said he wanted to see if I could be responsible.”

I closed my eyes.

“And then?”

“He told me that if I was a good girl, he would bring me a big gift.”

“What gift?”

Helen looked at me.

“A bicycle.”

I couldn’t stand it.

I hugged her.

“Eleni, it wasn’t your fault.”

“But I didn’t know what to do when the food was over.”

“You were eight years old, my love. It wasn’t your job to take care of two babies by yourself.”

She started crying.

“I thought if I was older, I would have made it.”

I held her face between my palms.

“Listen to me carefully. You did something very brave. You asked for help. That was the right thing to do.”

Look at me.

“Truth;”

“Truth”.

Two days later, Nikolas opened his eyes.

I was next to him.

At first I didn’t understand what was happening.

Then I saw his little eyelids move.

“Nicolas?”

He looked at me weakly.

And he whispered:

“But…”

I put my hand to my mouth.

“Yes, my love. Mom.”

I cried so much that a nurse came to see if I needed help.

For the first time in days I felt something that resembled hope.

That same night, however, my hope was mixed with new fear.

My lawyer called.

“Anna, we found something.”

“What;”

“Dimitris had submitted a request to change certain information in family financial documents.”

“And;”

“In one of them a face we don’t know appears.”

“Which one?”

“A man named Stefanos Makris.”

The name hit me like lightning.

The man with the silver ring.

“Sophia…”

“Yes;”

“This is the man I think is on the apartment camera.”

The lawyer fell silent.

Then he said:

“Then we must inform the police immediately.”

The next morning, Konstantinou called me.

“Mrs. Papadopoulou, we have located Stefanos Makris.”

“And;”

“He is cooperating with authorities.”

“What did he say?”

The policeman took a breath.

“He claims that Dimitris asked him to check the apartment’s entry system. But he says he didn’t know there were three unaccompanied children inside.”

I remained silent.

“And you believe him?”

“We are investigating his claim.”

“Is there anything else?”

“Yes”.

“What;”

“Makris delivered messages to us that indicate that Dimitris was preparing a specific date to denounce you as responsible for the abandonment.”

“What date?”

The policeman replied:

“On Monday. Three days after your daughter’s phone call.”

I looked at the calendar.

If Eleni hadn’t managed to call me…

If I had been a little late…

I couldn’t finish the thought.

CONTINUED IN PART 5…