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I looked at her. “What do you mean?”
Sarah seemed too lost in her own thoughts to answer. “Her mother sold her to me. Can you imagine? Do you really expect me to give her up to a family willing to sell their own child?”
I held up my hands in acquiescence. “Whoa. Nobody’s asking you to give her up. I’m only here to pass along information.”
“Information about my daughter. I’m her mother, Miss Clay. I’ll do whatever it takes to protect her.”
“Her brother is the one searching for her. His name is Sian.”
“A brother?”
I nodded. “Yes, and he’s lovely. Their mother is unwell. Sian was hoping to reconnect them before she passes.”
Sarah hesitated. “She’s going to die, too?”
“Yes, which is why Sian has been desperate to find you. No one wants to take your child away, Ms. Peele. They couldn’t even if they wanted to, right? She’s a legal adult now.”
She clutched the neckline of her T-shirt. “It’s been my greatest fear that someone would come and take her away.” Tears streaked her cheeks. “First, my brother. Then the baby’s biological mother. I never even considered a sibling coming for her.”
“You said your brother. Did you mean your ex-husband?”
“No, Tony knew I was serious about keeping the child. He didn’t argue. He just packed up and left town. Three weeks later I was served divorce papers.”
“Why did you worry about your brother taking the child from you?”
“He’s the reason I ended up with my daughter in the first place. Adopting the child was his idea.”
“I’m confused. The baby was intended for him?”
“Yes,” she said slowly. “In a way.”
Okay, now I had more questions.
“My brother was livid when I lied and told him the deal fell through. He isn’t a nice person when he doesn’t get his way. That’s why I kept my married name even after the divorce. There was no way I wanted to be an Edmonds again.”
“Edmonds,” I repeated. “As in Dr. Edmonds?” That couldn’t be a coincidence.
Her face paled. “You know him?”
“He didn’t send me, Sarah.”
“Oh, that much was clear. He already knows all the information you were asking.”
“He must’ve been unhappy with you for breaking your agreement.”
“He doesn’t know I kept her. I faked a pregnancy so that he would think she was mine. We haven’t spoken in years, though. We had a rocky relationship at the best of times. He was obsessed with being the best, at the expense of everything else.”
“Why did your brother pay you to obtain the child?”
She fidgeted with the hem of her shirt. “Because he knew it would draw less attention for a woman to take a changeling.”
“But you knew his intentions weren’t good.”
She paused. “I didn’t know for sure, but I suspected. He was always ambitious to a fault.”
“Why not return the child to her mother when you realized you couldn’t go through with it?”
“A mother who would sell her own baby? Never. Once I held her in my arms, I knew I couldn’t let her go.”
