Chapter 24
Unfit.
The word sat in the hospital room like a sentence.
I stared at Evelyn.
“What does that mean?”
“It means he is trying to gain temporary control over your medical decisions and the baby’s trust.”
“My baby doesn’t have a trust.”
My father looked away.
I turned to him.
“Dad?”
He closed his eyes.
“I created one when you told me you were pregnant.”
I could not speak.
“For the child,” he said. “Protected. Separate. I planned to tell you after the birth.”
Evelyn continued.
“Damon found out.”
“How?”
“We don’t know yet.”
I did.
Or at least, part of me did.
Damon had been opening my mail for months.
Lacey had once joked that rich fathers made rich grandfathers.
I had thought it was tasteless.
Now I understood it was research.
Evelyn placed the tablet in my lap.
There were scanned forms.
My signature.
Not mine.
Close.
But wrong.
A medical declaration.
A spousal petition.
A statement claiming I had mood swings, delusions, and violent jealousy.
There was even a paragraph saying I had threatened to harm myself if Damon left.
I felt sick.
“I never said that.”
“I know,” Evelyn said.
My father’s voice turned cold.
“Who notarized it?”
“Graham Vale.”
I looked up.
Damon’s college friend.
The man who attended our baby shower two weeks earlier and kissed my cheek like family.
Evelyn tapped the file.
“There is more. Lacey is listed as proposed temporary household manager.”
A laugh escaped me.
Broken.
“Household manager?”
“She would oversee your care.”
“My care?”
My father stood.
“She would oversee your cage.”
The baby moved again.
I placed both hands over my stomach.
For the first time, I understood the kennel was not random cruelty.
It was rehearsal.
Damon wanted witnesses to think I was unstable.
Dirty.
Hysterical.
A woman who belonged outside the house.
A woman who should not be trusted with a child.
The room went quiet.
Then my phone buzzed.
A message from Damon.
Come home alone or I tell the court what really happened to your mother.
My blood turned cold.
My father saw my face.
“What is it?”
I showed him.
May you like
His expression changed in a way I had never seen.
Fear.
