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“Adeline’s birth mother has hired an attorney.”
His heart didn’t pause. It stopped. “She what?”
“In fact, she hired a highly regarded Manhattan attorney who has been looking into the incidentals of Adeline’s adoption.”
His phrasing irritated Jacob further, which is why Carrington tended to put him on diplomatic issues in place of their legal team. Most lawyers didn’t do diplomacy well. “There are no incidentals in adoption. It’s a straightforward process, bound by courts. For goodness’ sake, Addie is six years old!” He raked a hand through his short hair. “Why would her mother come looking for her now?”
“Questions have been raised about the original home studies.”
That made no sense, none whatsoever. “They had a lovely home. I don’t understand.”
“The lawyer is contesting that your brother-in-law was not invested in the marriage.”
That was certainly true enough. “He wasn’t. He hadn’t been in some time, and we all wondered why my sister thought it was a good time to adopt a child, but she’d miscarried several times and we knew how much she wanted to be a mother. And she was a good mother.”
“Mr. Weatherly, technically I’m not advising you to keep that information to yourself, but insinuating that the poor condition of your sister’s marriage was widespread knowledge could be detrimental to our cause.”
“Our cause?” The collar of his shirt rose slightly. The palms of his hands went damp. “What is our cause?”
“To hopefully offer this woman a satisfactory settlement and tuck this inquiry quietly away.”
“Buy her off?” Anger didn’t simply roll up his spine, it raced. “The agency is thinking of buying off a drug-using mother because she brings some lame claim six years later? I—” He couldn’t have this conversation sitting in the car. He climbed out, took the phone and began pacing. “This is preposterous.”
“I wish it were, but it is not, Mr. Weatherly. Adeline’s specific adoption had a clause written in at the request of the birth mother. Sweet Hope pledged to honor that clause and offer only happily married couples as options. Your sister’s portfolio portrayed a loving couple in a barren state, offering all kinds of enticements for the betterment of the child.”
“And money? Money for the birth mother? Does it mention that?” He spat out the words. Ginger had procured a substantial sum from his parents to cover the birth mother’s medical costs, and they’d given it willingly.
The attorney hesitated. He could hear the man breathing on the other end of the phone, and the soft rustle of papers moving. Then he spoke again, and his careful words sent Jacob’s heart into a kind of free fall. “The birth mother accepted no money from anyone in this adoption, Mr. Weatherly. I’m not sure where you got that information, but there was no exchange of funds. She had medical insurance and self-funded her prenatal care. Your sister did pay the stated agency fees that covered standard administrative expenses.”
No payout?
He ran his brain around that quickly, because he was sure Ginger had referenced that. And it made her decision to name him as guardian harder, because his parents had handed over nearly thirty thousand dollars to ensure Addie’s adoption. Who’d have thought then that he needed to recall details of the adoption six years later? “Walk me back, here. You said the birth mother contacted you now.”
“A lawyer representing her interests contacted the agency for protocol and ran an independent investigation into the legality of the original adoption. And that’s why I’m calling you.”
Legality of the original adoption?
Jacob had been around legal beagles long enough to understand the nuances of a contract. If the original contract was not binding, then follow-up contracts could be declared null and void. “Are you telling me that my adoption of Addie might not hold up in court?”
He couldn’t swallow.
He could barely breathe.
The bright July sun disappeared from the sky, and the warm summer air seemed cold—suddenly very cold. Or was that just the chills running up and down his spine?
