He Gave Me Fifty Dollars to Live, I Left Him with Nothing novel · Chapter 12 of 32

Chapter 12: Papers

I read the first page standing in the doorway, with rain running off the porch roof behind the man who had served me.

*Emergency Motion for Temporary Custody.*

*Philip R. Carraway, adoptive father, v. Rosalind Tierney Carraway, as to the minor child Maisie Carraway.*

I carried it to the kitchen table and sat down, because my legs would not hold.

Tobias came in from the porch, where he had been watching the road.

He saw my face and took the chair next to mine.

"Read it to me," he said.

"He says I'm unstable." My voice came out thin. "He says I left a safe home at night, took the child into a storm, and made public accusations that caused a breakdown. He wants her returned to the Newport house tomorrow."

"On what grounds?"

"That he's her legal father."

"Show me."

I turned the page.

Exhibit A was a decree of adoption, stamped by the Newport County Family Court.

It was four years old.

It named Philip R. Carraway as the adoptive father of Maisie Rose Tierney, now Maisie Rose Carraway.

At the bottom was a line for the consent of the birth mother.

A signature sat there in blue ink, over a notary's seal.

It was mine.

I stared at the loops of the R and the tail of the final z.

I knew that hand.

I did not remember writing it.

"Roz," Tobias said gently.

"I never signed this."

"Are you sure?"

"I was never asked." My hands began to shake. "He had his assistant put a stack of forms in front of me in the second year. They were household papers. Insurance, school, a car. Maisie had pneumonia that week, and I hadn't slept in three days. The assistant said they had to be in by Friday."

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