Czytaj książkę: «From Midwife To Mummy»

CHAPTER ONE

DIM LIGHTS AND the sound of soft waves crashing against the shore had created an atmosphere of a calm retreat, but midwife Lana Sanders knew that her patient had long passed the point of caring.

“You’re doing great,” Lana said as she coached Kim through another contraction and watched the fetal monitor. She watched the fetal heart-rate accelerate, then come down to its baseline. So far this had been a perfect labor.

“You’re going to be late,” Jeannie whispered to Lana as she arranged the delivery table.

“It won’t be long now,” Lana said, as much to reassure the labor and delivery nurse as well as her patient.

“Push. Now.” Kim ground out.

“Wait, I’ve got to get the camera!” Kim’s husband Tom called out as he turned his back and started going through a duffle bag laid upon the bedside table.

“Wait?” said Kim. Her voice rose an octave and took on that gravelly sound that only a woman in transition, or one possessed, could reach. “What have you been doing all this time?”

“It’s okay, Tom, we have a couple minutes,” Lana said.

A deep growl escaped from Kim.

“Okay, maybe we don’t,” Lana said as she watched a circle of dark wet curls crown.

She positioned the delivery table so that it would be within easy reach, then undraped it, letting the protective covering fall to the floor.

“Kim, we’ve done this before, right?” Lana waited till she had Kim’s attention. “The baby’s starting to crown so whenever you’re ready go ahead and push.”

“Now!” said Kim, then took a fast breath.

Tom rushed to his wife’s side and helped her get into position as she curled her body and pushed down. Lana watched as the couple worked together for their child. Kim’s face was flushed and glowing with color as she concentrated on nothing but this moment—the moment she would bring a new life into the world. It was both beautiful and heart-wrenching for Lana to watch this miracle.

“Take another breath,” Lana said. “Is the contraction gone?”

“No,” Kim said, before she took a deep breath then returned to pushing.

“Okay, Kim, I need you to listen to me,” Lana said.

She waited as Kim looked up at her.

“Next push we’re going to have a baby, okay?” Lana watched as both excitement and fear filled her patient’s tired eyes. “You can do this. I promise.”

Kim nodded her head and grabbed Tom’s hand as she positioned herself again, then pushed.

Seconds later a screaming, squirming baby boy was delivered. Lana carefully suctioned the baby’s mouth, then handed Kim her new baby and watched as the experienced mom caught him close against her body, putting him skin to skin to keep him warm while Jeannie dried him off with some fluffy towels. She clamped then cut the umbilical cord that had been the baby’s lifeline. Seeing both mom and baby meeting for the first time, she was amazed, as always, by the miracle of life that she was blessed to witness.

“You did wonderfully,” Lana told Kim.

Lana delivered the placenta, then made sure her patient’s bleeding was controlled. A quick glance at the clock above the bed had her suddenly feeling a sense of panic. She had to get out of the hospital in the next twenty minutes or she was never going to make it to court on time.

She gave the new mom a hug, then posed for a picture with the rest of the Callahan family once they were allowed in the room. She headed to the nurses’ lounge for a quick change of clothes, then headed out of the hospital. This was going to be one of the most important days of her life. Today she would officially become a new mom herself—something that until a year and a half ago she had thought would never happen.

There was no way she was going to be late.

* * *

Lana white-knuckled her way through the nightmare of Miami traffic. The multiple lanes all seemed to be going nowhere, and Lana was short on both time and patience. For the first time she was scared she really was going to miss her appointment with the judge who would be finalizing Maggie’s adoption.

The thought of her sweet, adorable little toddler had her taking a deep breath and relaxing. It would be okay. She was cutting it close, but she would make it. After over twelve months of social workers’ visits and court appearances, there was no way fate would fail her now.

It had been fate that had brought the little girl into her life, after Lana had just happened to take on her young mother as a patient. When Chloe had later decided she couldn’t handle the responsibility of a new baby and showed up on her doorstep, handing Lana the child along with a notarized letter saying she wanted Lana to adopt her, it had been nothing short of a miracle.

A lane opened up to her right and she swung into it and followed it to the next exit. Fifteen minutes later she made it to the judge’s chamber where her appearance was scheduled to be. She was surprised to see that neither her lawyer nor her babysitter and Maggie were outside the room, waiting for her. She had texted both of them to let them know she was going to cut it close.

A note on the door explained that there had been a change in where the session would be held. Lana rushed down the hall to the courtroom. As she reached for the handle of the door a large hand reached around her.

“Let me,” said a male voice in a slow drawl that almost curled her toes.

Lana turned and followed the outstretched arm up to the man behind it. The sight of coal-black hair curling around an angular face with a pair of deep blue eyes was startling. Forgetting that she was blocking the door, she let her gaze continue down the tailored black suit to the pointed toes of black leather cowboy boots peeking from beneath his pants leg.

A cowboy in Miami?

The thought had Lana smiling as she looked up at the handsome man and with a quick “Thank you” continued into the courtroom.

A frantic Amanda waved at her from the front of the courtroom, where she and Lana’s lawyer Nathan had taken their seats. As soon as Maggie got a look at Lana the toddler started protesting. She wanted to get down and see her “mama” right then.

Amanda had dressed her in the new pink sundress Lana had recently bought, and with her dark curls and big deep blue eyes she looked like a china doll come to life. Lana reached over and took her little girl. She gave her a big tight hug that had Maggie giggling and squirming in her lap.

“Why the change to the courtroom?” she asked Nathan as she scooted into the seat next to him.

“Shh...” Nathan whispered back as he studied some of the papers in his hand.

Amanda looked at the two of them, then shrugged her shoulders, letting Lana know that she didn’t have a clue about what was going on.

Nathan was always a little uptight-looking, which Lana put down to his job in family law. She knew that sometimes his cases were very stressful, with emotions riding high, but there was something about the way he was studying the papers in his hands that told her something was wrong.

Suddenly her heart kicked into panic mode. It was the same feeling she had when she woke up in the middle of her repeated nightmare about Chloe showing up at her door and telling her that she had changed her mind. That she didn’t think Lana would be a good enough mother for Maggie and she was taking her away. Taking the little girl Lana had fostered since she was six weeks old. Taking her far away to somewhere Lana would never see her again.

It was the same nightmare she’d had for months now, but after today it would surely go away. Once the adoption was final Lana would be Maggie’s mother, just as if she had given birth to her. There would be no way anyone would be able to take her away then.

As Judge Hamilton entered the courtroom everyone rose, then sat when the bailiff indicated. Taking a second to look around the courtroom, Lana noted that the social worker, Ms. Nelson from the Florida Department of Children and Families, who had been handling her case, was seated on the right at the front of the courtroom. She watched as the older woman handed the bailiff some papers that were then given to the judge.

Apprehension sent a shiver down her back. Lana looked at her lawyer again, to see his attention glued to the judge, who was now reading over the documents the social worker had presented to him.

“This is the hearing for the final placement of the child known here as Maggie. I know that Maggie has been fostered with Ms. Sanders since...” Judge Hamilton paused as he read the documents in front of him “...since she was six weeks old, and that the child’s biological mother personally requested that Ms. Sanders be allowed to adopt her daughter.”

The judge looked up and gave Lana a smile. Lana felt the tension ease and relaxed back into her seat. Judge Hamilton had always been encouraging in her quest to adopt Maggie. She knew her case was in good hands as long as he was on the bench.

“Ms. Sanders has been forthcoming in all the demands the court has placed on her, and she has met every requirement that the Department of Children and Families demands.”

Judge Hamilton once more picked up the documents. This was it—finally he would say the words she had been waiting for and Maggie would be all hers.

“To be clear, this was to have been the last hearing and the adoption was to have become final today.”

Was to have become final? Were they going to make her jump through another hoop today?

“Ms. Nelson, you have indicated in your request to postpone the adoption that you have some new information that needs to be considered. Is that correct?”

Lana watched the social worker as she rose and walked to the front of the court room. Glancing at her lawyer for some sign as to what was happening, she noted that there was no look of surprise in his eyes as he watched the judge and the social worker quietly discussing the new documents she had handed him. When Nathan turned and took Lana’s hands his look of concern pierced her heart.

Only something truly wrong would cause that kind of reaction in Nathan.

Amanda reached for her other hand and, looking at her, Lana saw the fear that she knew mirrored her own. Maggie, thinking this was a game in which she was not included, pulled at the adults’ hands and started babbling in her sweet baby voice.

Lana released her hold on the others and wrapped her arms around her little girl. Okay, so there was another delay. There had been several over the last year. They had managed to clear each hurdle to get to this point, and if there was something else the court wanted from her she could handle it.

“It has come to the court’s attention that there is a new petition to stop this adoption by someone who claims to be a family member—a brother of the biological father,” Judge Hamilton stated.

Lana’s heart stuttered for a moment, then raced forward at a speed that had a gasp escaping into the quiet court room. She pressed Maggie closer to her chest as she felt the adrenaline rush hit her, telling her either to run or prepare to fight. She clasped Maggie tightly, needing to feel the reassurance that only physically holding her child in her arms could give her.

“Is the person petitioning the court present?” the judge asked.

Lana watched her nightmare play out in front of her as the cowboy she’d seen earlier rose to his feet.

“I’m Trent Montgomery, Judge Hamilton, and I have reason to believe that I’m Maggie’s uncle.”

* * *

Trent walked into the small room at the side of the courtroom and took a seat at the small rickety table. Across the table sat the young woman he had met going into the courtroom—the woman he now knew as Lana Sanders.

He was surprised he hadn’t recognized her from the picture he had found among the items his brother had had when he was taken to the hospital. Of course the young woman pictured smiling at the toddler whose hand she held looked young and carefree, with her hair flying all around her face as a breeze blew through the blond strands, while the woman he had opened the door for was all business, in her tailored skirt and blouse and her hair pulled back in some sort of clip.

Now the woman had let her hair down in more than one way, and her bright green eyes shot daggers at him as she talked with an older woman with steel-gray hair and eyes to match. He had no doubt that at that moment she wanted nothing more than to come over to the table where he sat.

Not that he didn’t understand the kind of anger she was feeling. When his brother’s lawyer had contacted him about the child he had wanted to hit something—anything—just to be able to take out the anger he’d felt at his brother. How could his brother have kept it from him that he had a little girl?

The lawyer had stated that Michael hadn’t believed the contents of the letter he had received from his ex-girlfriend. But when the private detective he had hired had brought back pictures of a smiling toddler with coal-black ringlets and bright blue eyes, he’d known that the child was his.

After the lawyer had read Michael’s will, and left some pictures of the child, Trent had come to the same conclusion as his brother. The child could only be a Montgomery. Another Montgomery child that had been abandoned.

He’d looked at those pictures a lot during the last two weeks, as he had tried to decide what to do about the child. She looked happy, smiling at the pretty blond woman, who smiled back with a love that seemed to pour out of the picture.

Why would he want to take this child away from this woman who appeared to love her? And what did he know about raising a little girl? Sitting there across from a woman who plainly wished a hole would open up and swallow him, he wondered for the hundredth time why he’d uprooted his life to come somewhere he didn’t want to be and where he certainly didn’t have a clue about what he was doing.

But he would go through with it. Because his brother had asked him to take care of this child if something happened to him. And because the little girl was a Montgomery, and that made her his responsibility.

He had failed to keep his brother safe from his father’s destructive influence, but he wouldn’t fail this child. On paper, Lana Sanders looked like the perfect mom, but Trent knew better than to believe everything he read. He would protect Michael’s child as he should have protected Michael.

Once the court awarded him custody of his niece he would pack up and head back to Houston, where he belonged. Somehow he would have to find a way to make things work till then.

* * *

“Lana, I want to tell you first that I know this isn’t going to be easy for you. You’ve been taking care of Maggie for months now, and I know you love her very much. Second, you need to know that the court has to consider any interest the biological family has in Maggie.” Ms. Nelson the social worker stated. “I’ve seen the letter they have from Chloe, telling Mr. Montgomery’s brother about her pregnancy. And then, of course, there’s the resemblance that none of us can deny.”

“And where was this biological family when she was six weeks old with no one to take care of her?” Lana spat out.

She looked across the table at the man who had been sitting quietly as she had questioned the social worker. Those blue eyes that she had found so appealing earlier now seemed ice-cold as they followed her every movement. He might as well just be an onlooker into this catastrophe he had orchestrated. Her life had suddenly been turned upside down, and he acted as if this was just another meeting for him to attend. As if he had no interest at all in the outcome.

But then he shouldn’t have any interest in her and Maggie’s life. He shouldn’t even be here.

The pain of her nails biting into her hands had her uncurling her fingers. So far she had managed to rein in her temper. Now, running her hands through her hair, she pushed it back from her face and wished she had left it up in the clip. She could feel the heat of anger in her face and she knew the sight of her reddened face and scattered hair couldn’t be a pretty picture.

She would have to get herself under control before she reached panic mode. That was not something she wanted either of these two people in the room to see. Taking a deep, steady breath, she willed her body to relax. Turning back toward the social worker, she pleaded her case once more.

“What about when she was just born and she was going through withdrawal? Was there anybody from this so-called family interested in Maggie then?” Lana said, glad that she no longer heard a tremor in her voice.

“I’m sorry,” Trent said. “I wasn’t aware of the child until a couple of weeks ago. If I had known I would have seen to it that my brother was here when she was born.”

“And where is this brother of yours, huh? Why is it that you’re here without him?” Lana asked. “If he’s Maggie’s father why isn’t he here?”

Lana watched the man she had earlier thought of as cold turn glacial.

“My brother passed away three weeks ago.”

The shock of the statement stunned her into silence. The man who was supposed to be Maggie’s biological father was dead? She stared at the man sitting across from her, who had shown no emotion while discussing his brother’s death. He was just full of bombshells, wasn’t he?

“So why are you here? Why are you so interested in Maggie’s life when apparently your brother had no interest at all?” Lana asked.

Turning toward the social worker, she noticed that the older woman had shown no reaction to this new information. Realizing that Ms. Nelson must already know about the death of the supposed biological father, she felt the relief of earlier fade.

“There is no way you can expect me to give Maggie up to a man who isn’t even her father. It’s one thing to consider the father’s rights, but this man is a stranger to Maggie. You have to see that Maggie is better off in a home where she feels safe and loved. That’s why Chloe didn’t take her. Why she left her with me. She wanted to make sure Maggie would always be in a stable home. She didn’t want to ever have to worry that her baby was not being properly taken care of,” she said as tears spilled from her eyes.

No way. No way would she let them take Maggie.

“We’re not making any changes as far as Maggie is concerned until we investigate the situation, Lana,” the social worker said as she took Lana’s hand and squeezed. “The first thing we’ll do is have a DNA test done on both Maggie and Mr. Montgomery.”

“I’ll give you the information you need to contact me,” Trent volunteered.

“Thank you,” the social worker responded. “And your lawyer has given us the information you have in relation to your brother’s alleged paternity.”

“And, having given you that information, I would like you to consider allowing me some visitation with the child,” Trent said.

“‘The child’ has a name. It’s Maggie. And why should I let you anywhere near her?” Lana asked.

“It’s your decision at this time, Lana, but we do have good reason to think that Mr. Montgomery’s brother was Maggie’s father,” said Ms. Nelson. “And if the DNA tests come back to show Mr. Montgomery as being her uncle, he will be able to ask for visitation while the court decides on custody.”

Lana looked at the man across from her. Cool blue eyes watched her from beneath thick dark lashes. She’d seen that calculating look before, only then it had been on the face of a toddler trying to figure out how to get another cookie after she had eaten her limit.

There was no denying the similarities this man shared with Maggie. And she feared that the DNA test would only confirm what her eyes were telling her now. Chloe had never said much about Maggie’s father, but she had said she’d written him a letter telling him she was pregnant when she hadn’t been able to get him to answer her calls. She had listed Maggie’s father as “unknown” on the birth certificate when she hadn’t heard anything from him, and she had refused to discuss him any further with Lana.

Lana rubbed at the tight knot she felt forming at the back of her neck. How could this day have gone so wrong? She was suddenly bone-tired. She knew she had to accept the fact that this fight wouldn’t be won here today.

“I’ll consider it,” Lana said. “But if I agree, I will be present at all times.”

“Thank you,” Trent said.

“About the DNA, Mr. Montgomery... I’m sure your lawyer has made you aware that the results when testing for an aunt or uncle of a child will not be definitive. It will give us more of a likely match than proof of a biological relationship.”

“Actually, it’s Dr. Montgomery, Ms. Nelson. But please call me Trent.”

For a moment Lana thought her brain would explode at this new piece of information. While she knew the court wouldn’t show any prejudice as far as financial circumstances were concerned, it would surely still consider if a child’s needs could be met. What if they felt that this Dr. Montgomery could provide better for Maggie?

“I’ll contact you both after we receive the DNA results and set up another appointment,” Ms. Nelson continued as she stood, letting Lana know that there wasn’t anything else to be said today.

Lana stepped out of the room and drew her keys out of her purse with trembling hands. She was glad she had sent Maggie home with Amanda instead of having them wait for her. She would have to use the time it would take her to get home to get herself together.

Thank goodness she had found Amanda, a medical student, while she had been looking for a roommate. With Amanda able to fill in as babysitter in exchange for rent, she had the extra help that a single parent needed.

She’d go home and get Maggie into bed, call Nathan to see what her options were, and then she would come up with a plan. Dr. Trent Montgomery might think that he had everything going his way, but they said possession was nine-tenths of the law and right now Maggie was hers.

Lana had only been fifteen when she had beaten the cancer that had been growing in her body. She’d lived through chemo and radiation treatment. She’d stumbled a bit when she had learned that the treatments that had saved her life had destroyed her dreams of having children, but she had managed to keep going even though she’d been hurting.

She was a fighter and she didn’t give up. And she was about to make a certain cowboy wish he had never left Texas.