Read Online Mother's Day by Patricia MacDonald - Free Book Online Page A

but he stared straight ahead as though she were invisible, a ghost drifting through the open door.
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Chapter Four
    Karen sat in the living room, an open book on her lap, staring out the front windows into the night sky. From the floor above, there was a continuous muffled thunder of rock music. Greg came into the room and watched his wife intently for a minute before he managed to summon a rueful smile.
    “Enjoying that book, are you?” he said.
    Karen looked up at him blankly. “What?” she asked.
    “That book you’re so absorbed in,” he said, sitting down across from her.
    Karen looked down at the book in her hands and closed it with a sigh. She placed it on an end table. “I don’t know why I even bothered to open it,” she said.
    Greg folded his arms across his chest. “What’s on your mind?” he said.
    “As if you didn’t know,” she said.
    “Well, what about her? Specifically. Maybe we’d better talk about it.”
    Karen stared beyond him, out the window again. You could see stars glimmering through the trees in their yard. She tried to collect her thoughts. Finally, in a dismal voice, she said, “You’re going to say I’m overreacting.”
    “I doubt it,” he said grimly.
    Karen was a little surprised by his tone. Usually he did his best to minimize her worries, to explain them away. But tonight his expression seemed to mirror her own. “What if,” she began. “What if this woman wants to take Jenny away.”
    Greg shook his head. “She can’t,” he said.
    “You don’t know that for sure.”
    “Of course I do,” he countered. “This was a legal adoption. That woman gave up all rights to her baby when she signed those papers. Of course I’m assuming that the incompetent Arnold Richardson did have her sign the papers.”
    “Don’t say that, Greg.”
    “I’m sorry. I’m sure he did.”
    “These days it seems as if the old rules don’t apply anymore,” Karen mused. “You’re always seeing these women on ‘Oprah’ and ‘Donahue’ who show up years later and win their natural children back in court.”
    “Those are one-in-a-million situations,” Greg insisted. “That’s why they’re on ‘Oprah’ and ‘Donahue.’ I mean, it would be one thing if we were just foster parents, or we bought her on the black market or something. But that’s not the case.”
    “It just seems like there’s no limit on how long these women have to change their minds and decide they want their child back,” Karen protested.
    “There certainly was a limit, as I remember. It was in the papers, and it was something like a month.”
    “It was three weeks,” Karen admitted.
    “So, you see, you answered your own question.”
    Karen nodded. She could never forget the tension of those three weeks, wondering if a phone call would come from Richardson, reporting the mother’s change of heart. She hardly dared give her heart away to the baby she held so tenderly, fearing the worst. And when the time was up, and the agreement sealed, she rejoiced inside all over again.
    “If you want,” said Greg, “I’ll call Arnold Richardson in the morning and explain the situation to him. He’ll tell you himself. She hasn’t got a legal leg to stand on.”
    “I hold Arnold Richardson responsible for this mess. He let someone get into our private files.”
    “I’m sure he had no idea what was happening,” said Greg.
    “That’s no excuse,” said Karen angrily. “He should run a tighter ship.”
    Greg took a deep breath and picked up a magazine, impatiently riffling the pages.
    “Now you’re mad at me,” she said.
    “No, I’m not. I just don’t want you going to pieces over this. The sky hasn’t fallen. You just have to remain calm.”
    “Like you,” she said.
    Greg did not reply. He rolled up the magazine into a tight tube and whacked it into his palm absently.
    r “It’s just that legality isn’t everything, Greg.” “Meaning what?” “Meaning what if Jenny wants to be with her?