After picking up a pair of twin girls out in the middle of nowhere, man left them at home with his paralyzed wife and took off..

They thought Mommy fell, so she didn’t come back. Kids’ minds work like that. What they don’t know, they fill in with what they understand.

“Mom, where’s our car?” one girl asked, the more observant one. “I don’t know, maybe it drove off… Mmm…” the other mumbled and went to play. That seemed enough for her.

John tracked down Kate. What he learned shocked him. Such different fates for twin sisters.

He conducted a full investigation. Kate grew up in a wealthy family, a real handful from the start. She tormented classmates, drove teachers up the wall.

Unlike Sarah, Kate’s adoptive parents told her she was adopted. She grew up oblivious otherwise. Teachers prayed for her to graduate.

No one could rein her in. Her dad was proud. “She’s just like me,” he’d say.

He loved her antics and tantrums. So Kate grew up spoiled, capricious, headstrong.

As a young woman, she toyed with guys, then rushed into marriage. Her parents threw a wedding beyond extravagant. A year later, Kate gave birth to twins.

That’s when she lost it. At first, she wanted to leave one in the hospital.

Her parents convinced her to take both girls. Kate had no idea how to handle two kids. “I didn’t sign up for two!” she’d scream.

“Where did they come from? No twins in our family!” She’d cry seeing her girls, dreading every feeding or diaper change.

Her parents decided to reveal her secret, thinking it’d help. They told her she was a twin, so her twins weren’t a surprise.

Maybe her sister had twins too, and they’d support Kate finding her, even connecting. But it backfired. Kate didn’t look for her sister.

She shut down, hired a nanny, and stopped going near her kids. Then she went wild, divorced her husband, cut off her adoptive parents.

She wanted nothing to remind her of her old life. Why? Kate found a richer man.

Her only problem? This new guy didn’t want her kids. Especially “with a spare,” as he’d joke about the twins.

“Nature gave you a backup copy?” he’d laugh. The girls were too young to understand. But her new man insisted Kate ditch the kids if she wanted to stay with him.

John pieced together the rest. Kate drove the girls to the forest and left them. When he told Sarah, she couldn’t believe it. Could her sister be so heartless? But the facts spoke for themselves.

Sarah suggested keeping the girls. John was already considering it. But they couldn’t just keep them without papers.

They needed Kate to sign away her rights, and Sarah and John to apply for guardianship. One problem.

The guardianship board wouldn’t likely give kids to a sick Sarah. The girls would end up in foster care. A power of attorney could fix it.

It’s a document parents use when sending kids on vacation with a grandparent or aunt. Few know you can make it valid until the child’s 18. Done at a notary, cheap.

If a child has legal or medical issues, the holder of this document is their official representative without parents. Perfect for Sarah and John’s situation. But how to convince Kate to sign it? They’d need to meet her.

Sarah couldn’t imagine that meeting. Not because she was disabled, but because she knew, from the girls’ stories, the awful things Kate did in front of them.

By now, the girls seemed to sense Sarah wasn’t quite their mom, though they still called her that. Sarah also knew Kate would likely demand money.

Give in once, and she’d keep asking. They barely had enough as it was. Only one path remained.

Sarah had to get back on her feet and fight for guardianship of her nieces. Then chance stepped in. One day, the girls headed out to play.

They loved roaming nearby. But the old mill was strictly off-limits. You can guess what happens when you forbid a kid something—it becomes the ultimate temptation.

From the window, Sarah saw the girls take the path to the old mill. She called out, but the wind carried her voice away. They didn’t hear. Sarah thrashed in bed, unsure what to do.

John was at work. The horror of what happened to her years ago at the mill flooded back. The images, that vile bald man, all rushed in…