Amelia
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It’s Thursday, exactly seven days since Theresa left Simone in her baby carrier at our front door. I’m now ready and waiting for her. Ethan, Holly, Barbara, and baby John are here. Holly and Barbara have the babies upstairs on the third floor. Valdez called us yesterday to tell us she booked a flight back to Maryland today, in four hours. We got a call a half hour ago she left her hotel. I can’t stop pacing the length of the office. Running a hand through my hair, I tell myself it’s the last time, I didn’t spend twenty minutes getting it straight to mess it up. It feels surreal to be back in my lawyer clothes, a pencil skirt in gray with a matching blazer and white silk blouse. What’s even more surprising is I’m down to a size twelve. Ethan asks me for the fourth time if I’m sure I want to be the one to take point.
“My daughter, my play, my way.”
He nods with a smile. “Just making sure.”
When the doorbell rings I take a deep breath. It’s time to make her regret ever trying to fuck with my family. She’s not alone, there is a very regretful lawyer at her side I went up against once for a woman in the legal clinic, Lilith Sawyer. I took the woman down in court; she isn’t a concern.
In the office Ethan is by the window, while Chris doesn’t get up from his overstuffed chair. I guide the women to the two chairs in front of the desk, their backs to Ethan and Chris. Both women are obviously unsettled, and they don’t hide it very well.
“The man standing is my brother, Ethan Bishop. I believe you’ll both recognize Chris as the man you were hoping to extort today.” Theresa smirks, and Sawyer shakes her head. “Please, Lilith, you’re a shitty lawyer and a shitty liar.
“Ms. Kirby, I know you know who I am. I’m aware you read the article in the Tribune on me and saw dollar signs. It was sweet the way they painted me as some bleeding heart who was passionate about taking on custody cases at no cost for the legal clinic. I rather liked the picture of me with the mother holding her little girl, she was a sweet little girl.
“It doesn’t appear as though you read the rest of the article. Or did you miss the paragraph about how I met Chris? Where I won a settlement of three and a half million dollars on a case where no other lawyer said they would have pushed for more than a million? They were right. Two million should have been the max if they’d gone up against anyone else. Except, they made the mistake of fucking with Ethan’s client, who became my client. For that, there is something called punitive damages.
“How about the rather large paragraph about me suing one fifteen-billion-dollar company on behalf of a twenty-billion-dollar company and winning a settlement so large it sent the company into bankruptcy?
“You want to know how I did it? Those with the power make the rules, they set the terms, they win. Knowledge is power. You had knowledge at your fingertips, yet you didn’t use it.” I pull out the eighty-page report on Theresa then toss it on the desk. A picture of her with her fiancé is paper clipped to the front of the file. “I know all about you, Theresa. Everything.”
Her eyes get big, and she stands up. “You don’t scare me. I came here for my money, now give it to me. I need to get paid. Give me my money or give me my baby and I’ll see you all in court.”
“Sit down.” She swallows as she looks down at her lawyer, then sits. I open a different folder already on the desk. Taking out the paperwork, I push it across the table, then unclip the cashier’s check inside. “This is the paperwork for you to give up your parental rights as well as a non-disclosure agreement. If you violate the agreement you are liable for a five-million-dollar penalty including all attorney fees. The going rate for surrogate mothers is one hundred twenty thousand dollars. We are willing to double it to a round two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Sign the document, take the check.”
Theresa laughs. “You are one crazy bitch. You all don’t think your baby is worth more than that? Hmm... wait till I tell her you all willing to pay to jet off to Greece and buy million-dollar homes so you can build a pool in your backyard, and can’t pay for your daughter what she worth.”
“Ms. Kirby, I’ll encourage you to never to take up acting. You might be intelligent, but you aren’t smart. How about I give your fiancé this signed statement from a well-known hockey player about how you demanded cash for an abortion? He was nice enough to print out the screenshot for us.”
I offer it across the desk to her. “Would you like a copy? Now, what do you think your fiancé would say about it? Or a signed statement from Candice Tucker, she’s willing to go on record about how you weren’t settling for a small payday. You wanted eighteen years’ worth of paydays. How about this arrest record for distribution of methamphetamine? Or this arrest record for prostitution. One or two of these things might be forgivable, but what about all of them at once?
“My daughter isn’t going anywhere with you. We’ll take your ass to court if we have to and it all comes out to everyone, everywhere. We’d get full custody in a day. Sign the paperwork, take the check. Or push for more and I’ll light a match to your world and you can watch it burn. The choice is yours.”
Eyes wide with fear, her hand trembles as she picks up the pen and signs the paperwork. She picks up the check and without another word or a look, she walks out of the room and slams the door on the way out.
Lilith is sitting in shock. “Lilith, if you would be so kind as to sign as the witness. I would appreciate it.”
Her eyes wide, she signs, then backs out of the room.
The door is barely closed behind her before Chris pulls me out of the chair and hugs me so tight I can’t breathe. “You are so fucking awesome. You did it. You won us our baby girl.”
***
Six weeks later
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I’m pacing the bathroom. Chris has Simone in his arms, rocking her as she chews on her hand. I told him she was teething already. Her eyes light up as I get close and her chubby little arms reach for me. I laugh as I pull her to me. Ah, she smells so good: baby formula, and the lavender lotion Barbara bought as a suggestion to help Simone settle better at night. She’s a real little baby dynamo now. Wiggling, laughing, crying, playing, cuddling, she loves to cuddle. The change from the baby she used to be to now is nothing short of amazing. Sometimes it’s hard to look at the pictures from when she first came to us.
The past few weeks were a kind of surreal dream. There are times I don’t quite trust how easily Chris and I adapted to being a mom and a dad. We had our moments: when Simone spit up all down my shirt, and it smelled so awful I threw up and it took me hours to clean up. Or the time Chris had no idea Simone had blown through a diaper and he pulled her out with poop all up her back. We had to throw the car seat away since we couldn’t get the smell out of it. We’ve made mistakes, we aren’t done making them but we do our best to let the little things stay little and keep our eyes on what matters the most, our love and our daughter.
Chris was up in the middle of the night before I even heard her crying. He was proud to change diapers and feed her, and dress her in the cutest outfits he could find. Our kitchen was now stocked with homemade organic baby food he spent hours making for her. There were times I had to beg to be the one to hold her and feed her. I’ll never admit the first day he was gone for an away game, I loved having Simone all to myself, although by the day he was due back I was almost in tears to have him home again.
Yet in all these weeks, Chris made sure we never forgot it was important for us not to lose focus on us. Every day he was home we carved out an hour for us ourselves to connect, without a word about Simone. Since he’s in and out of the house an actual date night hasn’t been planned, though we’ve been to Holly and Ethan’s. However, Chris is already adamant once the season is over it will be a weekly thing. I tried not to cry when he told me he searched so hard to find me, he was never going to allow either of us to forget how precious the gift of our connection to each other is.
We also couldn’t go anywhere without the press hounding us. A stripper sold the story to a tabloid, and for a week we had people waiting outside our home. Then some singer said something insanely stupid and they were gone, leaving us in relative peace.
We’re keeping our heads down, not answering questions. When Simone is older we know we’ll have to answer her questions, they are the only ones that matter. As for the public, we’ll see what she is comfortable with. Maybe someday we will speak about how we became a family. For now, if Chris gets asked in interviews, he simply says his family isn’t for public consumption. Almost everyone was polite enough to let it go, and the few who didn’t were left astounded when Chris walked away.
Catherine has only been gone a week. It was love at first sight when she saw Simone. A few times I had to plead to hold my daughter. Plans are firm for Catherine to go through her house and have it on the market within the next thirty days then move into the house behind us by this time next month, whether her house sells or not. She is already extracting promises of days alone with Simone and setting up a nursery in her new home. Chris and I can’t wait.
The alarm on my phone goes off. I clutch my daughter tighter to me and shake my head. “I can’t look. You do it.”
Chris laughs as he picks up the stick. He looks at me. “You know the answer to the question. We’re having a baby.”
I laugh as I start crying from happiness. “I love you, thank you.”
Hugging me close, he kisses my forehead. “Hell, sugar, I had the best and easiest part. Go put Simone down for the night. it’s time for us to celebrate.”
As I put Simone down I talk to her, she loves being talked to almost as much as she loves cuddles. “Okay, sweetie, now I need you to be good tonight and fall asleep right away. Me and Daddy have some business to settle.”
She chuckles. Darn it, that’s her daddy’s evil chuckle. Ever since she started eating enough to get full and getting more than two hours of sleep, she’ll drop for a nap at all hours of the day and only sleeps maybe four hours a night. She also has a hard time believing we’re really going to leave her all alone in the room. We have to come in to reassure her a few times before she gives up because she’s just happy we come when she calls.
I dig through the closet to find the box I hid in here a few weeks ago. Opening the box, I take out the ring and slip it in the pocket of my robe. When I go back into the bedroom Chris is waiting, naked. So damn beautiful, I wonder if I’ll ever get used to him. I crawl on the bed toward him and look down.
“Chris?” His hand slides up my thigh then around my ass, molding the flesh in his hand. An eyebrow goes up in question. “With me getting knocked up, it’s time you made an honest woman out of me.” I pull out the ring. It’s a thick white gold ring with a small sapphire glinting in the middle. “Christopher Baldwin, no longer the baddest boy in baseball or the baddest boy I’ve ever met, simply the best man I’ve ever met and the love of my life. Will you marry me?”
He yanks me down then rolls me under him. Shaking his head, he’s smiling. Then he reaches under my pillow. He’s holding an enormous emerald ring. “Great minds, except I wasn’t going to give you a choice. What do you think me knocking you up was all about? You were never going to get away from me. Our children will tie us together, lest you forget you’re mine forever and always.”