Chapter 3 - The Woman in the Rain
"Stop the car."
Alexander looked up from his phone. "What?"
"Stop the car!"
The driver braked near the corner.
Grace was out before Alexander could catch her.
Rain hit her face as she ran back toward the intersection. The woman in the gray hoodie had disappeared behind a row of small stores.
"Grace!"
Alexander caught up, breathing hard.
"You cannot chase strangers through alleys in the rain."
"She was watching Emma's window."
"You don't know that."
"I do."
They searched for ten minutes and found nothing except wet pavement and a bus pulling away.
On the ride home, Alexander held Grace's hand.
"We tell Miss Anna tomorrow."
"Tonight."
"Tonight," he agreed.
The Whitmore mansion had never felt more enormous.
Grace walked past rooms decorated by people who had asked her what mood she wanted each wall to create. Calm. Warmth. Elegance.
None of it had mattered when the house was silent.
She stopped outside the old nursery.
Alexander came up behind her.
"You want to open it."
"I want to stop being afraid of it."
He unlocked the door.
Inside, sheets covered the furniture. A wooden crib stood under the window. A mobile with tiny silver stars hung above it, exactly where Grace had left it after their last failed treatment.
Alexander pulled the sheet away.
Dust rose.
Grace laughed once, then cried before she could stop herself.
He held her.
"We're not replacing the child we never had," she said into his shirt.
"No."
"Emma isn't a cure for us."
"No."
"I need you to promise me we won't turn her into one."
Alexander pulled back. "I promise."
The next morning, their attorney, Dana Cole, arrived with adoption paperwork and a list of requirements.
Home study.
Background checks.
Medical review.
Court supervision.
"You are not buying a faster line," Dana said. "You are applying to become parents."
Alexander nodded. "Understood."
Dana opened Emma's hospital file.
Ten minutes later, she stopped reading.
"Where did you get this?"
"Bright Hope House," Grace said.
Dana turned the folder around.
"This surrender form is notarized."
"Is that bad?"
"No. But the notary number belongs to someone whose commission expired two years before Emma was born."
Alexander leaned forward.
Dana pulled out another page.
"And there is something else."
She pointed to the bottom of the medical discharge summary.
The line for the mother's signature was blank.
Grace felt cold.
Dana looked at both of them.
"If this file is real, someone made serious mistakes."
May you like
She tapped the paper.
"If it isn't real, then someone forged the legal surrender of a three-month-old baby."
