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I whispered words of love to her as I stroked her back, hoping it would help her calm down. Her sobs tampered down to sniffles and small shudders, and soon, she relaxed her grip on me.
Pulling back, she looked up at me. Her precious face was streaked with tears, and it broke my heart. “What’s gonna happen to me now?”
I sat back and took her hands in mine, then glanced at Lincoln, who smiled. I looked back at my daughter. “We’re going to take care of you.”
Her eyes widened. “You are?”
I nodded, grinning widely. “Yes, ma’am. There’s some paperwork we have to figure out, but you don’t need to worry. We’re not going to let anything happen to you.”
Piper nodded once before slumping back against the pillow, her face weighed down with exhaustion. She yawned, barely able to keep her eyes open. “Okay.”
Before we could say anything else, she was snoring softly. Lincoln chuckled.
I sat back and exhaled a breath. “That was rough. Do you think she’s going to be okay? I don’t think it’s totally set in yet.”
Lincoln placed his hand on my thigh and smiled. “She’ll be okay. She’s strong, just like her momma.”
I snorted. As I was about to argue, Dr. Williams walked in with another woman in a business suit. Her dark hair was slicked back perfectly in a tight bun, and she had thick cat-eye glasses, reminding me of a librarian. “Miss. Lewis, Mr. Bennett, this is Carrie Mills with the South Carolina Department of Social Services. She’s here to speak with you about Piper’s case.” She paused, gesturing to the hallway. “Please come with us.”
I glanced at Piper, not wanting to leave her. I didn’t want her to wake up and me not be here.
“We’ll be as quick as possible, I promise,” Carrie said.
Piper snored as Lincoln stood, extending his hand to me. “She’ll be out for a while. We both know she’s a hard sleeper.”
I looked from him to her and back, then sighed, placing my hand in his. We followed the two women out the door and down the hallway to an empty conference room.
We sat down around the large table, and Carrie took a file out of her briefcase and set it on the table. Dr. Williams also had a file in front of her, and my nerves started to eat away at me. I worried that Piper was going to be put in the foster care system and be bounced around from home to home. And I didn’t want that for her.
Carrie rifled through some of the papers in the file. “You have a rare case given the circumstances of your situation.” She adjusted her glasses as she looked up at Lincoln and me. “I think we may have had a handful of similar cases, but nothing exactly the same.”
“What does that mean?” I wrung my hands in my lap, anxious about the outcome of our conversation. “Do we have a chance to get custody of Piper?”
Carrie continued to look through the paperwork in the file. “Well, the good news is that you had an open adoption, and Piper’s adoptive parents have no living relatives. The only problem is that once adoptions are finalized, the natural parents’ rights are terminated. Legally, you have no rights to Piper since you signed the adoption papers. That may be an issue in court.”
I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat and looked at Lincoln. He frowned. “Surely, the court would see that we would be the best option over putting her the foster care system. We’re her parents.”
“By blood yes, but not in the eyes of the law. You gave up your rights ten years ago,” Carrie responded.
Silence hung in the air for several seconds until Carrie spoke again. “There isn’t a set law governing your exact circumstance. Usually, when both parents die, there is a next of kin for the child to go with. Since there isn’t, that changes things. We might be able to reverse the adoption given the situation. We want the foster care system to be the very last resort.”
Her eyes darted back and forth between us as she scribbled on a legal pad. “You’re not married, correct?”
Lincoln arched a brow. “No. Why?”
“Just gathering information. The court will look at your marital status when considering whether to grant custody. They would rather place the child in a single-family home than a broken one.”
Lincoln and I looked at each other, bewildered. As I was about to respond, she continued, “Do you still reside in Charlotte, Miss Lewis?”
Flabbergasted, I stammered, “I, um, yes.”
She nodded and wrote more on her notepad. “And Mr. Bennett, you reside in Beaufort, correct?”
“Yes.” He glanced from me to her, his brow furrowing. “If any of this is an issue, it can be addressed.”
I agreed. “We’ll do anything we need in order to gain custody of Piper.”
Lincoln smiled softly at me, taking my hand in his. There was a lot we needed to discuss, but in my heart, I knew we both would do whatever it took for Piper.
