“She told me she was giving Evelyn up to the foster system because she couldn’t cope. But she also told me that it was an opportunity for me to step in. She said, ‘You have a wife, a life. Time to carry your half.’ And then she attached all the social service details.”
I felt the floor tip under me.
“So you pushed the adoption through?”
“I pulled every string I had,” he said, nodding. “I made sure we were next in line. I told you there was a child who needed us, but I didn’t tell you that she was… mine.”
“Why, Norton?”
“Because you were still grieving, Chanel,” he said. “You’d recently had our third miscarriage. You couldn’t even walk past the baby aisle without crying. I thought it would wreck you to know that I could have kids…”
“And you thought lying wouldn’t wreck me?”
“I thought love would fix it,” he said, dropping his voice. “I thought if I gave her to you, fully, she’d be yours in every way possible. I didn’t think I could survive raising a child without you.”
Read more on the next page ⬇️⬇️⬇️
