Chapter 14 - WHO GETS TO BE HER FAMILY?
The headlines were brutal.
BABY TRAFFICKING RING EXPOSED.
HOSPITAL EXECUTIVES ARRESTED.
CHICAGO POWER BROKER LINKED TO DECADES-LONG SCHEME.
Forty-seven families reopened cases.
Seven former hospital employees were arrested.
Lieutenant Pike survived his gunshot wound and immediately asked for a lawyer.
Dr. Mercer agreed to testify.
Vincent Vale was denied bail.
My mother survived.
I visited her once.
She looked smaller in the hospital bed.
Older.
“Emma.”
I stayed near the door.
“I gave the FBI everything,” she said.
“Good.”
“I know that doesn’t fix anything.”
“No.”
She cried.
“I loved you.”
“That makes it worse.”
She looked at me.
I had spent days imagining what I would say.
In the end, I only had one question.
“When I cried for my baby, how did you sit beside me?”
Her face crumpled.
“I told myself Leah would have a better life.”
“You didn’t get to decide that.”
“I know.”
“No. You know now.”
She had no answer.
I left.
Maybe someday I would forgive her.
Maybe I wouldn’t.
Both were allowed.
The harder conversation waited at Damian’s house.
He stood by the window.
Leah slept upstairs.
“My lawyers say the original birth documents make your case almost automatic,” he said.
“My case?”
“Full custody.”
I stared at him.
“And you?”
His mouth tightened.
“Legally, I’m not her father.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
He looked out the window.
“I’ve been her father since the first night she came home.”
“I know.”
“I changed diapers.”
“I know.”
“I stayed awake every time she had a fever.”
“Damian.”
“I taught her to walk.”
His voice broke.
He stopped.
That was the first time I had seen him lose control.
Not with bullets.
Not with Vincent.
With this.
“I know,” I said quietly.
He turned away.
“You should take her.”
My chest tightened.
“What?”
“She belongs with you.”
“She’s not property.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes.”
I looked upstairs.
“She loves you.”
He said nothing.
“You’re her father.”
“Not biologically.”
“Neither are half the fathers in this country.”
That got his attention.
I walked closer.
“You didn’t steal her.”
“I benefited from it.”
“Without knowing.”
“Elena knew.”
“And Elena tried to fix it.”
He looked at me.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying Leah has already had enough people ripped away from her.”
He stared at me.
“I’m not doing that to her again.”
Three months later, the court restored my legal rights as Leah’s biological mother.
Damian’s original paperwork was declared fraudulent.
His parental status became complicated.
So we made it uncomplicated.
I received full legal maternity.
Damian remained Leah’s guardian and father figure with my written consent.
People thought that was strange.
I didn’t care.
Leah didn’t need a normal family.
She needed a safe one.
But one final question remained.
Why had she recognized me that night at the restaurant?
The answer came from Elena.
Federal agents found one last video on her private laptop.
In it, Elena sat beside baby Leah.
She held up a photograph.
My photograph.
“This is your first mama,” Elena whispered.
Leah touched the screen.
Elena smiled through tears.
“Her name is Emma.”
Then she held up one of my maternity sweaters.
My mother had given it to her with Leah.
Vanilla and lavender.
My scent.
Elena had kept it.
For years.
The video ended with Elena speaking directly into the camera.
“If I can’t fix this myself, I hope somehow Leah finds her.”
I pressed my hand over my mouth.
Damian stood beside me.
May you like
On the screen, Elena whispered one final sentence.
“Children remember love in ways adults don’t understand.”
