Chapter 8 - TWO DNA KITS
The samples were collected under independent chain of custody.
Mine.
Rachel’s.
Both babies.
Aloysius’s sample was not necessary to determine maternity, but police later obtained or requested appropriate testing for broader confirmation.
The first question was simple:
Which newborn belonged to which mother?
Mitochondrial? No need.
Standard parentage testing.
Hospital also cross-checked:
Cord blood.
Newborn metabolic cards.
Birth weights.
Footprints.
Photographs taken minutes after delivery.
Leonie weighed six pounds nine ounces.
Nora seven pounds one.
The baby removed from my room and secured under Rachel’s suspected identity weighed seven pounds even.
Expected normal variation from birth.
The baby in observation with the turned left foot weighed six pounds eight.
Again.
Consistent.
Then footprints.
Not as definitive as DNA, but supportive.
The observation-room infant’s print matched Leonie’s delivery print pattern in several visible ridge areas.
Hospital risk manager said:
“We are treating her as likely your child while awaiting confirmation.”
Likely.
The cruelest word.
I was allowed supervised skin-to-skin with the baby believed to be Leonie because medical staff determined bonding should not be unnecessarily interrupted, but no identity band was removed.
Rachel was given the same with the baby believed to be Nora.
For the first time after the incident, I held the infant with the left clubfoot.
She tucked her hands beneath her chin.
Exactly as she had after birth.
I cried so hard a nurse took my blood pressure.
Caius sat beside me.
“That’s her.”
I kissed the top of the baby’s head.
“Probably.”
He glared.
“It is.”
“I think so too.”
“Then say.”
I looked at him.
“Because being careful matters right now.”
He hated that.
Children prefer certainty.
So do adults.
Then Leonie opened her eyes.
Dark gray-blue newborn eyes.
She yawned.
Caius touched one finger.
“Hi.”
No grand recognition.
No mystical bond.
A newborn accepting warmth.
That was enough.
Rachel met Nora separately.
Later she sent me one message through the social worker:
She kicks out of the blanket.
I smiled for the first time in two days.
Then Aloysius’s attorney filed an emergency family motion.
Not for custody of Leonie.
To prevent me from making unilateral medical decisions and to preserve his parental rights pending investigation.
I nearly screamed.
Marissa stopped me.
“He is the legal father unless a court orders otherwise.”
“He switched her.”
“Allegedly, until adjudicated.”
“He hit Caius.”
“That is documented and he is under no-contact.”
“I don’t want his name near her chart.”
“Your feelings do not rewrite parentage.”
I hated law again.
The court issued temporary orders:
I held exclusive physical custody while criminal investigation proceeded.
Aloysius no direct contact with Caius or newborn.
No medical decision obstruction.
Emergency care not delayed.
Routine medical decisions by me subject to later review.
Good.
Then orthopedics.
Leonie’s clubfoot treatment should not wait because adults were litigating identity.
Once DNA confirmed, casting could begin.
May you like
Aloysius had tried to erase a condition.
Medicine would simply treat it.
