The Baby Couldn't Tie Him, The Lie Did novel · Chapter 20 of 32

Chapter 20: The First Time He Held Her

I read the label under Blair's photo until the letters stopped meaning anything.

The respondent has admitted lying to police.

I had.

I had stood in that station with my hospital bracelet on and said it, so my mother wouldn't be charged for something she didn't do.

And they had taken the one true thing I'd said and turned it into a weapon.

"They can't," my mother said. She was reading over Nathan's shoulder. "Can they? Nathan, can they do that?"

"They can file anything they want," he said. "A judge still has to read it."

He was already on his phone.

By noon he had found a family lawyer. A woman with short gray hair and a hoarse voice, who had once sued the city over a playground and won.

She read the petition in the hospital cafeteria and pushed it back across the table.

"It's thin," she said. "They're hoping you'll panic and sign something."

"I won't."

"Good. Don't."

On Monday a judge refused the emergency order.

He set a full hearing for January and asked the county for a home visit in the meantime.

"Surprise visit," the lawyer warned me. "They won't call first. Make sure the place is clean."

My mother looked at her like she'd been personally insulted.

My daughter came home on the ninth day.

Four pounds, fifteen ounces. No tube under her nose anymore. She'd learned to drink from a bottle on the sixth day and a nurse had cheered.

We brought her up the stairs over the laundromat in a car seat Nathan had bought and installed and then reinstalled twice, because he'd watched a video.

The dryers were thumping downstairs.

The floor was warm.

My mother had moved her own bed against the far wall and put a secondhand bassinet beside mine.

← Chapter 19 · All chapters · Chapter 21 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend