Chapter 1 - THE PAPER IN DIANE’S PURSE
Diane Walker ripped the pacifier out of eight-month-old Noah’s mouth and threw it across the living-room carpet.
“Make him shut up.”
Noah screamed.
Emily tightened both arms around her baby and stepped backward.
“Stay away from my baby.”
Diane looked at her with the expression she reserved for waiters who brought the wrong wine.
Not embarrassed.
Not sorry.
Annoyed that Emily had challenged her.
Mark came from the kitchen.
Emily expected him to see his mother looming over his crying son and finally understand.
Instead he stepped between the women and pointed at Emily.
“Apologize to my mother.”
Emily stared at him.
For several seconds, even Noah’s crying seemed distant.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
Diane’s mouth curled.
Emily looked at her husband as though seeing a stranger wearing his face.
“She just ripped something out of our baby’s mouth.”
“She’s frustrated.”
“So am I. I’m not taking it out on an eight-month-old.”
Diane reached for her burgundy leather purse.
“Enough.”
As she lifted it, a folded packet slipped onto the carpet.
Emily saw the heading.
TEMPORARY GUARDIANSHIP.
She bent before Diane could.
“Give me that.”
Emily shifted Noah securely against her chest and opened the first page.
Noah Walker.
Proposed temporary guardian: Diane Walker.
Her stomach dropped.
Then she saw Mark’s signature.
She looked up.
Mark went pale.
Diane’s confidence returned.
“Soon, you won’t decide anything.”
Emily turned to Mark.
“You signed this?”
“Emily—”
She flipped to the second page.
Whatever Mark saw there made him stop talking.
Emily’s eyes moved across the document.
Statements regarding household instability.
Concerns about maternal conduct.
A section identifying Diane as the preferred emergency caregiver.
Then a line referring to supporting declarations.
Emily looked at her husband.
“You already signed this?”
Mark opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
Emily looked down again.
At the bottom of the second page was a handwritten date.
Three weeks earlier.
Not during Noah’s birth.
Not months ago.
Three weeks.
Emily felt something inside her go cold.
She took her phone from her pocket.
Mark stepped forward.
“What are you doing?”
“Calling my sister.”
“Why?”
“Because Noah and I are leaving tonight.”
Diane smiled.
It was subtle.
But Emily saw it.
May you like
And suddenly she understood something worse than the paperwork itself.
Diane had expected this reaction.
Related Stories
