“She didn’t want me.”
Emily put both arms around her.
“That’s what he wants you to believe.”
“The paper says it.”
I reached for Claire, but she stepped away.
“You searched for Rachel,” she said to me.
“Did you ever search for a child?”
“I didn’t know you existed.”
“You saw my photograph last night.
For one second, you looked at me like I had stolen your sister’s face.”
Her words folded me in half.
I gripped the edge of the desk.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“For one terrible second, I blamed you for bringing all of this into my home.”
Claire’s eyes filled.
“And I spent my whole life believing no one wanted me.”
Emily pulled us together.
Claire resisted, then pressed her face against my shoulder.
“I would have wanted you,” I said.
“If I had known, I would have come.”
David gave a bitter laugh.
“A touching performance won’t change a legal document.”
Mrs.
Alvarez picked up the surrender agreement.
“There are two witness signatures.”
Margaret looked down.
“One is mine.”
Mrs.
Alvarez pointed to the second.
“And this one says Anna Ellis.”
I took the page.
The letters looked like my handwriting, but the final stroke curled the wrong way.
“I never signed this.”
David’s face remained still.
“You sign papers without reading them all the time.”
“Not eighteen years ago.
I signed Morgan then.
I didn’t take your name until our tenth anniversary.”
Margaret snatched the document.
“That cannot be right.”
Emily took a photograph of it.
David moved toward her.
“Delete that.”
“No.”
“I pay your tuition.
I pay for your apartment.
If you keep doing this, you will lose everything.”
Emily held Claire’s hand.
