Chapter 3 - THE EMPTY DRIVEWAY
Ethan raced outside without thinking.
Victoria was halfway across the driveway, holding the newborn beneath a thick blanket.
“Victoria, stop!”
She turned.
“You’re making a mistake, Ethan!”
“Put my son down!”
“He’s my baby too!”
Lily appeared behind him, crying.
“Dad, don’t let her take him!”
Victoria opened the passenger door of her car.
Ethan sprinted forward and grabbed the door before she could shut it.
Victoria shoved him.
“You’re going to destroy this family because of one stupid recording?”
“One recording?”
Ethan reached inside and pulled the baby from her arms.
The newborn was hot and red-faced, his tiny body shaking from the cold air.
Victoria screamed.
“You can’t take him from me!”
Ethan held the baby close.
“I can when you use him to control my daughter.”
Victoria stared at Lily.
“You told him?”
Lily stepped behind her father.
Victoria’s expression hardened.
“That was very stupid.”
Ethan’s voice dropped.
“Don’t speak to her.”
For a moment, nobody moved.
Then Victoria looked past him toward the house.
“You think I’m the only one who will suffer if you call the police?”
Ethan’s stomach tightened.
“What does that mean?”
Victoria smiled without warmth.
“You don’t even know what you signed.”
“What did I sign?”
“The papers at the hospital.”
Ethan remembered the stack of forms Victoria had brought him after the baby was born. He had been exhausted, frightened, and focused on the newborn’s health.
Victoria had told him they were routine documents.
She had insisted he sign quickly.
“What did you do?” he asked.
Victoria climbed into the car.
“You gave me authority over the children if something happened to you.”
Ethan stepped toward her.
“That isn’t possible.”
“It is when the papers are notarized.”
She started the engine.
Ethan reached for the keys, but Victoria locked the doors.
“You should have listened when I told you not to go upstairs,” she said through the glass.
Then she drove away.
Ethan stood in the driveway with the baby in his arms.
Lily clung to his side.
“Dad,” she whispered, “she said you were going to leave us.”
Ethan looked down at her.
“Who told you that?”
Lily wiped her cheeks.
“She said you only wanted the baby.”
Ethan’s heart broke.
But before he could answer, his phone rang.
The caller ID showed the hospital where his son had been born.
A woman’s voice said, “Mr. Carter, we need to discuss the emergency guardianship form you signed.”
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Then she added:
“Victoria has already filed it.”
