My Daughter Told Everyone I Have Dementia To Steal My Fortune. Then I Found The Drugs She Was Putting In My Coffee. What Should My Next Move Be?

The Kidnapping

Thursday afternoon felt wrong from the moment Jacob called me.

“Philip,” he said, his voice tight with panic. “Allison took Clara.”

I was in my study reviewing paperwork for tomorrow’s confrontation. His words didn’t register at first. “What do you mean?”

“Took her from school,” Jacob said. “I went to pick her up at three, and the teacher said her mother already came. Allison showed up with ID and Clara’s birth certificate. Told them there was a family emergency.”

My blood went cold. “Where is she now?”

“I don’t know,” Jacob said. “I’m calling Torres.”

“Do it,” I said. “Now.”

Special Agent Torres called me back 20 minutes later. “We’re aware of the situation,” he said. “Legally, Allison is Clara’s biological mother. She has parental rights unless there’s an immediate threat to the child’s safety. We can’t intervene.”

“She abandoned Clara seven years ago,” I said, my voice rising. “She has no right.”

“Mr. Peton, I understand your frustration. But this is a custody matter, not a criminal one. If Jacob wants to challenge this, he needs to go through family court. That could take weeks.”

“Weeks? I know,” Torres said quietly. “But our hands are tied unless there’s evidence of harm or danger. Right now, Allison hasn’t committed a crime by picking up her own daughter.”

I wanted to throw the phone across the room. “Where would she take her?” I asked.

“Uh, most likely her apartment,” Torres said. “We’re sending officers to do a welfare check right now.”

Jacob called me 30 minutes later. “They found them,” he said. “Clara’s at Allison’s apartment. She’s okay. Physically, at least. The police said there’s no immediate danger.”

“Did you talk to her?”

“For two minutes,” Jacob said, his voice breaking. “The officer let me speak to her. She asked me why the nice lady said she was her mom. I didn’t know what to tell her.”

I closed my eyes. Clara was seven years old. She had no idea what was happening.

“What did Allison say?” I asked.

“Nothing. She wouldn’t come to the phone. Just told the officer that Clara was her daughter and she had every right to spend time with her. And the police? They said unless there’s a court order, they can’t remove Clara. Allison’s within her legal rights.”

I called Martin Hughes immediately. “Martin, I need an emergency custody petition filed tonight.”

“How Philip? Family court doesn’t work that way. Even an emergency hearing could take 72 hours.”

“I… I don’t care,” I said. “File it. Jacob has been Clara’s sole caregiver for seven years. Allison abandoned her. That has to count for something.”

“It does,” Martin said. “But we’ll need documentation. Proof of abandonment. Proof that Jacob’s been the primary caregiver. Character witnesses. I can start the paperwork tonight, but we won’t get a hearing until next week at the earliest.”

“Next week?” I felt the walls closing in. Clara could be gone by then.

“I’ll do everything I can,” Martin said. “But you need to prepare Jacob for the possibility that this could get messy.”

Jacob came to my house that evening. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days.

“She won’t answer my calls,” he said. “I’ve tried 20 times. Allison just lets it go to voicemail.”

“Torres said Clara’s safe,” I reminded him. “She’s not in danger.”

“You don’t know that,” Jacob said, his voice raw. “Allison abandoned her once. What if she does it again? What if she just disappears?”

I didn’t have an answer for that. We sat in silence for a long time. Outside, the sun was setting, casting long shadows across the lawn. I thought about Clara—her drawing, her smile, the way she’d called me Grandpa Philip that first night at the Lexington Room. And I thought about Allison. My daughter. The woman who had given birth to Clara and then walked away. The woman who was now using that same child as leverage.

“She’s going to call,” I said finally.

Jacob looked at me. “How do you know?”

“Because that’s what this is about. She doesn’t want Clara. She wants control. And she knows taking Clara is the one thing that will force us to negotiate.”

As if on cue, my phone rang. I looked at the screen. Allison.

Jacob leaned forward. “Answer it.”

I put the phone on speaker. “Hello?”

“Allison.” Her voice was calm. Too calm.

“Hi, Dad,” she said sweetly. “I thought we should talk.”

“Where’s Clara?”

“She’s fine. She’s watching a movie. We had pizza for dinner. She’s a sweet kid. I can see why Jacob’s so attached.”

My jaw tightened. “What do you want?”

“I want to settle this,” Allison said. “All of it. Tomorrow. You, me, and the future of this family.”

“Is that a threat?”

“It’s an invitation,” she said. “10:00 a.m. Your house. We’ll discuss Clara. We’ll discuss your estate. And we’ll come to an agreement.”

“And if I refuse?”

There was a pause. Then Allison’s voice turned cold. “Then I disappear with Clara, and you’ll never see either of us again.”

The line went dead. Jacob stared at me, his face pale.

“She’s serious,” he said.

“I know.”

“What do we do?”

I looked at the phone in my hand. Tomorrow was supposed to be the confrontation. The wire, the confession, the moment when everything came crashing down on Allison. But now she’d changed the game. Now Clara was in the middle of it.

“We go through with it,” I said quietly. “Torres will be monitoring. If Allison makes a single threat, if she admits to anything on tape, they move in. And then we get Clara back.”

“And if it goes wrong?”

I didn’t answer because I didn’t know. All I knew was that tomorrow, one way or another, this ended.

That night I lay awake in the dark thinking about the last time I’d felt this helpless. It was three years ago, sitting beside Maryanne’s hospital bed, watching her slip away. I’d failed her. I hadn’t been able to save her. But I wouldn’t fail Clara.

Tomorrow I’d face my daughter. I’d wear the wire. I’d say whatever I had to say to get her to confess. And when it was over, Clara would be safe. I had to believe that, because if I didn’t, I wasn’t sure I could go through with it.