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A cold rush of adrenaline coursed through my body. Why hadn’t he told me?
“Bet Hailey could answer a few questions,” she said, recovering quickly enough to squeeze my knee gently, and I shook my head to clear it. Was it really possible I’d managed to lose what I wanted most just because the two of us were shit at communicating? Because of a stupid assumption and misunderstanding? There had to be a way to fix this.
Kennedy reached over again to squeeze me with one hand, rubbing her little belly with the other. “This one’s definitely a boy.” She winced. “Sick as a damn dog all day long–T was so much easier.”
I sighed heavily. The court date to confirm Daniela’s adoption was in three days and without Adam by my side, I worried the sisters would change their mind. It was possible that inside of a week I could lose everything I’d ever wanted, andalmosthad.
It was getting late and Kennedy pushed off the sofa with a groan, stretching backward before snagging the diaper bag.
“She’s really beautiful,” she said softly, carefully scooping Daniela from the floor and pressing a kiss to her soft little cheek. “Daddy’s going to have to keep a shotgun and more big doggies in the house.” She smiled at me, but my heart sank. I wasn’t so sure Daddy would be sticking around.
Bailey smiled up at her from where he lay on the rug, watching over his two tiny charges.
Lucy wasn’t so bold. She’d learned early on that Teagan suffered her great-grandmother’s grabby-hands affliction and whenever T came to visit, Lucy retreated to the upper shelf of my closet.
Kennedy swung the diaper bag over one shoulder and Teagan over the other, and she leaned in, all out of arms for a hug. “You need totalkto him, Madelyn. Neither one of you are talkers, you’re just doers. You can’tdoyour way out of this one.” She wiggled her eyebrows at me and I snorted.
Bailey walked them both out to Kennedy’s car and gave T a good snuffle before Kennedy shut the door. Then he sauntered back to me and sat while I stood waving as the two of them backed down the driveway.
I scooped Daniela off the floor and carried her into the kitchen for a bottle. Not having Adam in our days hurt, and I wondered if it hurt him as much to be without us. Something told me it did, at least as far as missing the baby went. I wasn’t so sure that missing extended to me at all.
The next three days were torture, and I hardly slept. I hadn’t decided what it was I needed to say to Adam–there were so many things–that I avoided it altogether and further punished myself. Well, all of us.
Daniela was decidedly more fidgety and I knew it was because she was waiting for Adam, hoping that his face would be the one to show up the next time someone walked through the door.
I knew what was waiting for me that day, and it wasn’t just a judge and a couple lawyers. I didn’t know how I was going to talk my way out of this one, and as I dressed the baby in a pretty little white lace dress, I prayed she didn’t have an epic blowout for at least a couple hours. She’d been outdoing herself in that department lately.
There were loud voices coming from the room as I walked down the hallway with Daniela on my hip, my heels clicking sharply against the floor. I hated them, but if ever I needed to look put together, today was the day.
Adam’s expression was tight and guarded when we walked through the door. His was the first face I sought and the first one I found. I was hoping for a small smile, some kind of tender look to give me hope, but there was nothing there.
The judge wasn’t yet in the room and James was saying something to Adam, almost right up in his ear, as three men in suits conferred with one another–loudly–from the other table.
“Ah, Madelyn.” James smiled at me, but it was tight and a little stressed. “It’s possible we’re going to run into a bit of a complication today.”
I caught Adam’s eye, incredibly grateful he’d shown up, and I sucked in a deep breath.I’d known this was coming.
I’d hoped and prayed Daniela’s adoption was finalized before they found us.
One of the men’s eyes latched onto Daniela and he sprang from his seat, shaking a finger in our direction as he released another volley of words in Spanish. My Italian was fluent, thanks to years spent based there, and there was some structure and a little vocabulary overlap. It was enough to understand that the man in the charcoal suit was accusing me of trafficking Venezuela’s orphans, and I felt my jaw drop.
Adam came up beside me and lifted Daniela from my hip, kissing the top of her head and cuddling her close as she nestled happily into his chest. She’d been looking for him the past week and the contentment was evident on her face.
Another man hurried into the room behind us and James stuck out a hand to greet him.
“This is Mr. Fiori.” He introduced us with a low voice. “He’s counsel for Sacred Heart. It seems a suit was filed against them just this morning, also alleging participation in trafficking.”
My heart slammed desperately against the walls of my chest and my breaths felt dangerously shallow, the edges of my vision starting to blur, and Adam’s other arm went quickly around my hips. I could feel from the tension in his body that he was uncomfortable touching me, but I leaned into him gratefully and tried to draw a deep breath.
I’d known this was coming for a minute and I’d been trying to figure out how to warn Adam with words that I never found. Ironically, one of my charges in the city was the Food and Agriculture representative to the UN from Venezuela, and he’d mentioned the International Organization for Migration was kicking up a fuss about the involvement of so-called charities operating within border camps to steal helpless migrant children. I’d kept my mouth shut, feeling that finalizing Daniela’s adoption in advance of any claims might work toward protecting her.
I had no doubt there were operations disguised as charities, scooping up children for trafficking but I knew I hadn’t been involved with one.
“We’re just waiting for the FBI’s team to show up–maybe DOJ–guess we’ll see who they send,” James whispered behind one hand. “They’ve been drawn into this as well and were apparently notified of this before we were.”
Almost as if on cue, I could hear the march of dress shoes in the hallway and when Adam turned his head I felt him tense a little more. He hissed something under his breath that sounded like “Hendrickson,” and I looked over my shoulder to see an attractive older man leading three other men into the room. He was tall and broad, his dark blond hair beginning to fade into something lighter.
“What’s he doing here?” I asked quietly, and James leaned in.
