Chapter 3 - The Adoption Petition
Brenda stared at the message on her phone.
I FOUND THE ADOPTION PETITION.
I KNOW WHAT YOU WERE PLANNING.
Kendra snatched the device from the floor.
“What adoption petition?”
Brenda grabbed for it.
“Give me that.”
Kendra stepped away.
“You were trying to adopt Lily?”
Amelia moved in front of her daughter.
Lily clung to the back of Amelia’s sweater.
Brenda looked from Kendra to Amelia, searching for the version of the truth that would cause the least damage.
“It wasn’t an adoption petition,” she said at last. “It was a guardianship form.”
“The message says adoption.”
“Richard is being dramatic.”
Amelia’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“Why were you filing anything involving my child?”
“I was protecting her.”
“From whom?”
Brenda met her eyes.
“From you.”
For a moment, Amelia genuinely believed she had misheard.
Kendra lowered the phone.
“Mom, what are you doing?”
Brenda straightened her coat.
“She works constantly. Lily spends her life being passed between babysitters. Amelia lives in a small apartment and barely has savings.”
“I work at a hospital,” Amelia said. “Lily goes to preschool and stays with a licensed caregiver.”
“You’re unmarried.”
Amelia stared at her.
“So?”
“A child needs stability.”
“A child needs adults who don’t abandon her at fountains.”
Brenda’s jaw tightened.
“That was one mistake.”
“You were planning to take her before today.”
Brenda looked toward Lily.
“I was planning to give her a better life.”
Lily hid deeper behind Amelia.
Amelia felt rage building inside her, but she forced herself to remain calm. She would not scream in front of her daughter. She would not give Brenda any reaction that could later be twisted into evidence of emotional instability.
“Leave my apartment.”
“Amelia, listen to me.”
“Leave.”
Kendra touched Brenda’s arm.
“We should go.”
Brenda pulled away.
“No. She needs to understand what she’s doing. Richard has been poisoning her against me for years.”
“I barely speak to Richard.”
“He controls everyone with money.”
“And you came here because he froze your cards.”
Brenda’s face flushed.
“That money belongs to this family.”
“It belongs to Richard.”
“He promised to take care of me.”
“That is not my problem.”
Brenda stepped forward.
Lily whimpered.
Amelia raised one hand.
“Take another step toward my daughter and I will call the police.”
“You would call the police on your own mother?”
“I already did.”
The two women stared at each other.
Brenda finally turned toward the door.
Before leaving, she looked over her shoulder.
“You don’t know how difficult it is to raise a child alone. Eventually you’ll fail, Amelia. When you do, don’t expect me to rescue you.”
Amelia closed the door behind them and locked it.
Then she slid to the floor.
Lily crawled into her lap.
“Is Grandma mad?”
“Yes.”
“Did I do bad?”
Amelia’s heart broke.
“No, baby. You did nothing wrong.”
“Grandma said good girls wait.”
Amelia closed her eyes.
“Good grown-ups come back.”
Lily considered this.
“Grandma didn’t come back.”
“No.”
“Are you coming back?”
“Always.”
It was a promise Amelia knew no parent could guarantee in every literal sense, but she said it with every part of her heart.
Her phone rang.
Richard.
Amelia carried Lily to the couch and answered.
“What did you find?”
Richard’s voice was hard.
“A draft petition for legal adoption. Brenda had it prepared six weeks ago through an attorney named Marcus Pell.”
“On what grounds?”
“Alleged neglect, unstable employment, emotional volatility, and inability to provide suitable housing.”
Amelia almost dropped the phone.
“She invented all of that.”
“Yes.”
“Why would an attorney prepare it without speaking to me?”
“He didn’t need your cooperation to draft it. Filing successfully would be another matter.”
“Did she file it?”
“Not yet.”
“Then why abandon Lily?”
Richard was silent.
Amelia understood that he had a theory he did not want to say aloud.
“Richard.”
“The petition includes language describing a history of dangerous lapses in supervision.”
“I’ve never left Lily alone.”
“I know.”
Amelia looked toward her daughter, who was arranging couch cushions around the stuffed ladybug.
“You think Brenda wanted Lily to be found alone.”
“I think she intended to create a record.”
The room seemed to narrow around Amelia.
“That makes no sense. Brenda was the one responsible for her.”
“Unless she planned to claim you had been at the mall.”
Amelia’s stomach turned.
“I was at work.”
“Which can be proven. That may be why she didn’t call the police immediately. She might have expected Lily to wander far enough that the situation became more serious before she changed the story.”
Amelia pressed a hand to her mouth.
“No.”
“There’s more.”
She did not want there to be more.
Richard continued.
“Brenda has been making inquiries about Lily’s inheritance.”
“What inheritance?”
The answer came slowly.
“The one your father created before he died.”
Amelia stood.
“My father didn’t leave Lily anything. Lily wasn’t born when he died.”
“He created a generational trust.”
“No one told me.”
“Because the funds do not become accessible until specific conditions are met.”
“What conditions?”
Richard hesitated.
“The child’s legal guardian gains limited control when the child turns four.”
Lily’s fourth birthday was in twelve days.
Amelia looked down at her.
The adoption petition was not about providing Lily with a better home.
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The mall incident was not a careless shopping mistake.
Brenda was trying to become Lily’s legal mother before a trust worth millions of dollars became active.
