Whether I would demand that he choose between me and his mother.
Whether all the resentment I had swallowed over the years would finally come out at once.
Instead, I said, “Your mother tried to take Leo.”
His face emptied.
“What?”
I pointed toward the adoption papers sealed in a clear hospital evidence bag.
“She demanded I sign away my parental rights so Karen could have him.
When I refused, she hit me and took him from the bassinet.”
He stared at the bag.
For several seconds he didn’t speak.
Then he sat down beside my bed and covered his face with both hands.
“She told me she was going to bring you flowers.”
That almost broke me.
Of course she had.
He looked up.
“Where is she?”
“With security.”
He stood immediately.
I caught his wrist.
“Don’t go fight with her.”
“She hit you.”
“I know.”
“She took our son.”
“I know.”
His eyes filled.
I had rarely seen him look that furious.
“Then what am I supposed to do?”
“Stay here.”
I shifted Leo carefully and looked toward Luna.
“Stay with us.”
So he did.
Mrs.
Sterling tried to reach him through her phone.
Then through a guard.
Then through anyone who would carry a message.
Her first message was that everything had been misunderstood.
Her second was that I had provoked her.
Her third was that Karen deserved a child too.
Her fourth was that family matters should not be handled by strangers.
My husband listened to none of them.
When Mike finally asked whether he wanted to speak to his mother before she was removed from the maternity floor, he said only one thing.
“Tell her she is not coming near my wife or my children.”
Mrs.
Sterling did not take that well.
Her voice carried from the corridor even through the closed door.
“She turned you against me!”
My husband closed his eyes.
Then we heard her shout the sentence that destroyed what remained of her own defense.
“I was trying to save that boy from her!”
Mike’s voice followed, lower and indistinct.
Then she yelled, “Karen needs him more!”
My husband looked toward the door in disbelief.
I said nothing.
There was nothing left to explain.
The authorities handled what came next.
I made one thing clear from the beginning: my position would not be used to influence the process.
