I had flown here because the director of the assisted living home said this was important. It had been a few months since I had visited back home. Being a mother and wife took a lot of my time, and I was slightly selfish.
I’ve been taking care of my mother since I was seventeen years old. Always making sure she was well taken care of, loved, and had the proper therapies she needed. When my grandmother suggested putting her into Rosemary of Christ Home for the sacred, I was relieved.
We had been taking care of her, and with my grandmother getting sick, it was hard for just me to care for her. I had to learn that I wasn’t a bad person because I allowed my mother to be put into an adult home.
It wasn’t selfish either.
She deserved to have the best care, better care than I could give her in that moment. When my grandmother passed, I still went and checked in on her. It was when I met Bash and got married that my responsibilities slipped.
I had been sucked into this new life and I didn’t know how to manage being this new wife while also being a daughter to my mother. I convinced myself that she was in a better place and didn’t need me as much.
Shitty of me.
The nun stared at me, confused because I was so upset. She couldn’t, or maybe she refused to understand why I would be upset that my mother, who was mentally four, had been raped by someone on their staff.
“We assumed that she was gaining a bit of weight. It wasn’t until she was a little over four months that we noticed she was with child.”
“Why in the fuck didn’t you abort the pregnancy? I’m her emergency contact and you never called me… ever.” My chest felt tight as I cussed in this nun’s face.
The lord would have to forgive me because this was crazy. When they told me to come, I expected that they were going to shake me down for more money. Tell me that her care was becoming more expensive, which was never a problem.
Bash paid for my mother’s care every month.
I didn’t visit her often because seeing her condition was hard, and it brought up so much trauma. Losing your mother mentally at seventeen was hard and having to watch her revert back to an age that was younger than you was ten times harder.
I felt like the old her was still inside there and was fighting to come out. She wanted to return back to normal, but that wasn’t the case. With her injury, it was a miracle that she survived.
“We do not believe in abortions here, Mrs. Eaton. Every child is a blessing, and this one is no different.”
“Where is the man responsible? Has he been found? I want a DNA test done on the baby… every male in this place needs to provide their DNA.”
She took a deep sigh. “We will not subject our staff to any such thing. The person responsible has been fired and removed.”
I watched as she spoke like she was reading a teleprompter. “What am I supposed to do? Someone hurt her, and I trusted you people.”
The nun stood up. “Shall we take a walk to see the baby?”
I didn’t want to see the baby, or my mother. It would be a reminder that I failed her. She was supposed to be safe, and I allowed someone to harm her. I was the one responsible, not the people here.
They didn’t owe her a damn thing; I owed her everything. It was my job to protect her, and I had failed. The nun locked her office, and we walked the long corridor toward the hospital connected to the care center.
“Ruben Ester,” she whispered.
“What?” I was in so much shock that someone could have come to slap me, and I wouldn’t have been surprised.
“The man responsible is Ruben Ester… he was a bishop, and the church protected him. Let him go quietly, so he can find work in another church.”
She continued to walk beside me with her arms behind her back. “What can I do? Press charges… what can I do?”
“Remove your mother from this place and take that baby with you. I wish I could say this is the first birth from a patient here. We had a patient in a coma last year deliver a baby. Her family was quietly paid off, and they removed her to another facility. There is also patients here that have been used for theireggs. There are patients without family here, and a few of those babies have gone up for adoption to private clients. Mrs. Eaton, there’s a lot that goes on here… a lot.”
I stopped walking. “Are you kidding me? I’m supposed to just shut up?”
She looked down the hall. “Yes, exactly that. You play stupid until your mother is safely out of this care center.”
We continued walking, as she scanned the access badge, and we entered the hospital’s nursery. I held my breath as we neared where the babies were taken. I had two kids at home waiting for me.
What was I supposed to do with another baby?
