Chapter 1
I had been a mother for less than twenty minutes when my mother-in-law tried to take my son from me.
My body was still shaking from labor.
My throat burned from screaming.
My hair clung damply to my face.
Somewhere nearby, my newborn baby was crying in a soft, broken way that made every part of me ache to hold him again.
My husband, Caleb, was supposed to be beside me.
He had promised.
“I won’t leave your hand,” he told me when the contractions started.
But after our son was born, a nurse said Caleb had stepped into the hallway to answer an urgent call from his mother.
He never came back.
Instead, Evelyn walked in.
My mother-in-law.
Perfect gray hair.
Pearl earrings.
A cream suit that looked wildly wrong in a delivery room.
In her hands was a stack of papers.
She did not ask if I was okay.
She did not look at my son.
She looked at me like I was a problem finally weak enough to solve.
“Sign it,” she said.
I blinked at her, still dizzy.
“What?”
She placed the papers on my blanket.
“You are not fit to raise a child in this family. The baby stays with us.”
For a second, I thought pain medicine had made me hear wrong.
I looked at the first page.
Voluntary termination of parental rights.
My blood went cold.
“No.”
Evelyn’s mouth tightened.
“Do not be dramatic, Hannah.”
“My son was just born.”
“And he deserves stability.”
I tried to lift myself, but pain tore through me.
“Where is Caleb?”
“He agrees.”
“No.”
She shoved a pen into my trembling hand.
“Sign now, or you will never see him again.”
My fingers tightened around the pen.
At the bottom of the page was my name.
Beside it, a blank line.
And under that, Caleb’s signature.
Except it was not Caleb’s signature.
I knew my husband’s handwriting.
I knew the way his C looped low.
I knew the sharp line in his B.
This signature was shaky.
Wrong.
Fake.
Something inside me snapped.
I lifted my hand and threw the pen as hard as I could.
It struck Evelyn in the forehead and bounced onto the floor.
She stumbled back, stunned.
“Get out!” I screamed.
My voice tore through the room.
“Nurse! Doctor! Help me!”
Evelyn’s face twisted.
“You stupid girl.”
The door burst open.
Dr. Martin came in with two nurses behind him.
“What is happening?”
I grabbed the papers with shaking hands.
“She tried to force me to sign away my baby.”
Evelyn straightened.
“She is unstable. She is exhausted. She doesn’t know what she’s saying.”
Dr. Martin took the papers.
His face changed as he read.
Then he looked at the signature.
He turned to Evelyn.
“This is forged.”
The room went silent.
Evelyn’s lips parted.
Dr. Martin held up the page.
“This does not match Caleb’s admission signature from yesterday. Not even close.”
One nurse stepped between Evelyn and my bed.
The other pressed a security button.
I whispered, “Where is my husband?”
Evelyn’s eyes flicked toward the door.
Too fast.
May you like
Too afraid.
And that was when I realized the forged signature was only the beginning.
