My breath caught.
“What?”
Daniel’s face went pale.
Margaret whispered, “She lost the baby.”
I looked at my husband.
“Why have I never heard this?”
He didn’t answer.
Margaret’s voice trembled.
“Because Daniel promised never to tell you.”
I felt as though the room had tilted beneath me.
The nurse quietly stepped backward.
I looked at Daniel.
“What exactly did you promise your mother?”
He finally met my eyes.
And his answer was barely audible.
“I promised that if we ever had a daughter…”
He looked down at our newborn.
“…we would give her Rebecca’s name.”
I stared at him.
“But we never agreed to that.”
“I know.”
“Then why did your mother think she could decide?”
Daniel looked toward Margaret.
“Because she believed you wouldn’t let her.”
Margaret suddenly reached for the folder.
Daniel stopped her.
“No.”
She looked at him.
“You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“Yes, I do.”
He took the folder from her hands.
Then he turned to the nurse.
“Please document everything she submitted.”
The nurse nodded.
Margaret’s face crumpled.
“Daniel, please.”
He shook his head.
“You came into my wife’s hospital room while she was recovering from childbirth.”
His voice became colder.
“You held our daughter and called her by a name we never chose.”
He looked at the forged signature.
“And you tried to arrange custody without our consent.”
Margaret began crying.
But I barely heard her.
Because one question had suddenly become more important than everything else.
I looked at Daniel.
“Why were you late?”
He went completely still.
The nurse looked at him.
Margaret stopped crying.
And after several seconds, Daniel finally whispered:
“Because Mom called me from the hospital administration office.”
I frowned.
“She told me you had already agreed to let her take the baby.”
My stomach dropped.
“And I believed her.”
Daniel looked at our daughter.
“Until I arrived and saw her holding Grace.”
Then he looked at me.
“And I realized my mother had lied to both of us.”
The nurse quietly gathered the papers.
Before leaving, she paused at the doorway.
“There is one more thing you should know.”
I looked at her.
She lowered her voice.
“The request wasn’t made only once.”
My heart sank.
“How many times?”
The nurse looked toward Margaret.
“Four.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
And Daniel finally understood that what his mother had planned wasn’t something that had started today.
It had been happening long before our daughter was born.
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