Without telling me, they discussed adoption.
“You gave away my baby while I was unconscious?”
“I was told she might never walk or speak.”
“So you gave her away?”
“I panicked!”
Chloe pushed away from the table.
“You let Mom believe her baby was dead?”
Eric covered his face.
“The adoption wasn’t finalized immediately. I planned to tell Rachel.”
“When?” I demanded.
“After you recovered.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No.”
Vivian learned what happened several weeks later.
She tried to stop the adoption, but Eric threatened to prevent her from seeing me if she interfered.
Eventually, Sophie was adopted by a couple in another state.
Vivian never stopped searching for her.
“That was the third child,” Mia said. “Not Vivian’s biological daughter—her granddaughter.”
Chloe’s name appeared in the file because Vivian amended her will six months earlier.
She divided the seaside property equally among her two daughters and the granddaughter taken from one of them.
