Chapter 62
Naomi is safely in jail.
I breathed a sigh of relief when the police snapped those handcuffs on her wrists at the party. I assume she’ll be in jail at least overnight, so I don’t need to worry about her for now. But I have to start thinking about my next move.
The only person I have told about the positive DNA test is Lola. I sent her a text message about it, but she must be busy because she hasn’t responded yet. She and I will talk about what to do and how to handle this.
It’s nearly dinnertime now. The party is long over, and Teddy is upstairs in his room, playing with all his new presents. He has no idea that I am his mother and that he was stolen from me. How am I going to tell him?
I head up the stairs to his room. The door is cracked open, and I push it the rest of the way.
Teddy is sitting cross-legged on the floor, playing with a new truck that was a present for his birthday.
I think back to the robot car I bought him, now sitting in pieces in a garbage bag. He would have loved it.
“Hi, Teddy,” I say.
Actually, your name is Dominic. Naomi changed your name when she stole you from me.
Teddy looks up at me and grins. “Hi, Ronnie! Wanna see my new car?”
Actually, you shouldn’t call me Ronnie. You should call me Mommy. I’m your mother.
“Of course!” I say.
I sit down beside him on the floor, crossing my legs the same way he does.
He starts pointing out the features on his new truck, but all I can think about is that this is my son.
This is my little baby who is now walking and talking and explaining about how the doors on the truck open and close.
All I want to do is throw my arms around him, hug him tightly, and never let him go.
“That,” I say, “is a very cool truck.”
“I know!” He flashes me that smile again, and I can’t help but think about Clay. Stupid, irresponsible Clay, who will never get to see his son again. Clay would have gotten such a kick out of this little boy, who is his spitting image. “Ronnie?”
Mommy! I’m your Mommy! “Yes, sweetie?”
His lower lip juts out slightly. “Is Mommy okay?”
That woman is not your mother. “Yes, of course. She’s fine.”
“But the police took her away.” His lower lip now starts to tremble. “Is she in jail?”
“She might be in jail for a little while,” I tell him. “But she’ll get out eventually.”
And then they will throw her right back in when they find out what she did. And you will never, ever see her again.
“Oh.” He looks upset, but he doesn’t cry at least. “Okay.”
“But don’t worry,” I say. “Your dad is here.”
Of course, he’s not really your father. Your father is buried in the ground because he didn’t love either of us enough to stop shooting drugs into his veins.
You’re probably going to eventually find out all this.
And I don’t know what Jeremy will do when he finds out the truth.
I don’t even know if he’ll still love you.
“Okay,” Teddy says, slightly mollified.
He goes back to playing with his truck. Kids are so resilient. This will be hard on him, but he needs to know the truth, and he will bounce back from all this. Teddy and I will be okay. I mean, Dominic and I will be okay.
No, wait, I can’t take his name away from him. Can I?
“Teddy.” I speak around a lump forming in my throat. “Can I give you a hug?”
“Okay,” he agrees.
I wrap my arms around his skinny shoulders. His little body seems so fragile as he hugs me back. I wasn’t a good mother to him six years ago. I didn’t protect him from the monster who stole him away from me.
I need to make it up to him.
After I leave Teddy, I head downstairs to find Jeremy on the phone in the living room.
It seems to be a tense conversation, judging by the tone of his voice and the fact that he is pacing back and forth across the carpeting.
Just as I reach the living room, he ends the call and shoves his phone into his pocket.
“The temporary order of protection is in place,” he tells me. “Naomi can’t get at Teddy. Thank God.”
His words should be comforting to me, but they’re not. A temporary order of protection is simply a legal document. And Naomi has shown a gross disregard for the law.
“Isn’t she still in jail?” I ask.
He winces. “Unfortunately, no. That lawyer of hers—Fletcher—he got her out.”
I saw Naomi’s lawyer once at town hall before a mediation session. He seemed like a nice enough guy, and I’m sure he has no idea what Naomi is really like. He probably thinks he’s doing what’s right.
“Hardwick thinks after everything she’s done, I’ll get full custody, and she’ll just have visitation rights,” he says. “Honestly, I don’t even feel comfortable with her having that. But she is his mother…”
No, she’s not. Teddy isn’t her son. She stole him from me. I’ve been searching for him for six years.
I can’t keep it from him any longer. Jeremy needs to know the truth about Teddy. It will destroy him, but this is not a secret I can keep. The truth has to come out so that Naomi can be punished for what she did.
“Oh, hey,” Jeremy says. “Listen, Ronnie, I know the timing on this is terrible, but I have to fly out to Boston tomorrow for an important business meeting on Tuesday morning. I’ve been trying to get out of it, but I can’t.
” He raises his eyebrows at me. “Any chance you can stay with Teddy for the night while I’m gone? I’ll be back by Tuesday at dinnertime.”
I let out a breath of relief. Jeremy’s business trip almost feels like a reprieve.
I can put off telling him the truth until he gets back as I spend the entire delicious day getting to know my son better.
On Tuesday night, we can have a long talk about everything and figure out our next move. “Sure, happy to.”
“Thank you.” He crosses the room so that he can put his arms around me, and he plants a kiss on my nose. “I know you will protect him with your life.”
“I won’t let anything happen to him,” I promise.
I will die before I let anything happen to Teddy.
And in two nights, I will tell Jeremy everything.