Chapter 14 - THE OTHER VALERIA CROSS
There were two women named Valeria Cross.
Lucas’s fiancée was Valeria Anne Cross, born in 1995. Her mother was Valeria Rose Cross, born in 1972 and missing since 2004.
Carter had used the mother’s full name only once in old records. Later documents omitted middle names, making the witness appear to be the bride.
Valeria Rose worked as a nurse in Elena’s rehabilitation facility. She witnessed Carter moving infant Mia into Isabel’s guardianship while falsifying Elena’s consent.
She later tried to report it.
Her car was found abandoned near the Canadian border. No body appeared. Young Valeria was nine and entered foster care after her mother vanished.
Carter eventually arranged legal help that kept the child out of an abusive placement. Valeria had spent years believing he rescued her.
“He created the danger he later saved me from,” she said.
Not entirely. Foster records showed serious abuse unrelated to Carter. He did help stop it. That act created loyalty he later weaponized.
Mia’s blue file likely contained testimony from Valeria Rose explaining the transfer. Carter wanted it not only to erase Mia but to bury evidence about Valeria’s mother.
The discovery changed Valeria’s motive without erasing her choices. She had been manipulated through gratitude and fear; she still reported Mia’s shelter location.
Naomi found a Canadian death record for Valeria Rose under another surname. The woman died from cancer five years earlier, leaving a sealed deposition with a legal clinic.
The clinic would release it only upon proof that Elena or Mia was alive.
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Carter filed an injunction claiming confidentiality.
The court scheduled a hearing for the morning of the wedding.
