Chapter 5 - The Adoption Papers
I thought I understood how cruel people could become.
I was wrong.
Because Doreen had planned this long before my baby was born.
The next morning, Mae brought me another file.
This time, she looked afraid.
“What is it?”
She placed it on the bed.
“Something I found in the hospital records.”
I opened it.
The first page made my hands freeze.
Private infant placement agreement.
I read the names.
My name.
My baby’s name.
And another name.
Doreen Carver.
“What is this?”
Mae swallowed.
“An emergency guardianship agreement.”
My eyes moved across the page.
It was designed to look temporary.
But the details were horrifying.
If I was declared mentally unstable after delivery, Doreen would become the baby’s legal guardian.
Not Nathan.
Not me.
Doreen.
“She wants my son.”
Mae nodded.
“Yes.”
“But why?”
Simone answered quietly.
“Because she wants control.”
I looked at her.
“What do you mean?”
Simone sat down.
“Doreen does not see children as people.”
“She sees them as possessions.”
I remembered the way Doreen touched my stomach.
The way she corrected my nursery choices.
The way she spoke about my baby as if he already belonged to her.
Then I remembered something else.
A conversation from months earlier.
Doreen standing in my kitchen.
“You will understand after you become a mother.”
I had smiled.
I thought she was giving advice.
Now I realized.
She was warning me.
Mae opened another document.
“There is more.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“She already chose a name.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
Mae showed me the paper.
Baby Carver.
Not Baby Carver.
Not Leah and Nathan’s child.
Doreen’s family name.
My vision blurred.
“She planned this before he was born.”
Mae nodded.
“Yes.”
At that moment, my phone rang.
Nathan.
I stared at the screen.
Mae looked at me.
“Do not answer.”
But I did.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then his voice.
Soft.
Broken.
“Leah.”
I said nothing.
“I know you’re upset.”
I laughed.
“Upset?”
“Is that what you call this?”
“Leah, listen to me.”
“No.”
“You listen.”
My voice shook.
“You signed papers to take our son away from me.”
“I was trying to help you.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it is true.”
“No.”
I closed my eyes.
“It is what people say when they hurt someone and want to feel innocent.”
Nathan became quiet.
Then he said something that chilled me.
“You don’t understand what my mother knows.”
I froze.
“What does that mean?”
“She knows things.”
“What things?”
Nathan hesitated.
Too long.
“Nathan.”
“She has proof.”
“Proof of what?”
He lowered his voice.
“Proof that you are not stable.”
The call ended.
I stared at the phone.
Mae looked at me.
“What did he say?”
I whispered:
“They have something.”
Simone stood.
“Then we need to find out what.”
That night, while the hospital slept, Mae unlocked a hidden archive room.
A place where old patient records were stored.
“We have one chance.”
I followed her inside.
Rows of files surrounded us.
Dust.
Paper.
Secrets.
Mae searched through a cabinet.
Then suddenly stopped.
Her face changed.
“What?”
She pulled out a folder.
Not mine.
Not Nathan’s.
Doreen’s.
The label on the front said:
CARVER FAMILY CONFIDENTIAL.
Mae opened it.
The first page contained a photograph.
A woman.
A baby.
And a date from twenty years earlier.
I stared at the picture.
Because I recognized the baby.
May you like
And I recognized the woman holding him.
Doreen.
