Chapter 7 - THE SECOND COPY
The missing adoption form appeared at a notary office.
Not notarized.
Attempted.
The notary remembered Lucinda.
“She brought a signed consent and asked whether I could acknowledge it if the signer joined by video later.”
“What did you say?”
“No.”
Good.
“Why?”
“Because the signer was not present and I could not verify voluntary execution.”
Lucinda left with the paper.
No crime by notary.
No fraud completed.
Then she tried a private mobile notary.
Same problem.
Elowen must appear.
Identity.
Consent.
That was where Lucinda’s postpartum incapacity plan became useful.
If she could obtain a temporary guardianship order or medical incapacity finding, maybe she believed alternate procedures could substitute.
Naomi said:
“She was wrong about the adoption.”
“Completely?”
“A court will not terminate a fit mother’s rights because her mother-in-law wants continuity.”
Good.
“But could she have created temporary confusion?”
“Yes.”
Again.
The law is strong.
Administration can still be manipulated.
Then medical records.
Lucinda had contacted my obstetrician’s office twice after delivery.
Claimed she was “family care coordinator.”
Asked whether I had postpartum depression screening results.
Office refused.
Good.
Then she contacted our pediatrician.
Asked whether Rosalie could be transferred to “family physician network.”
Refused without parental authorization.
Systems worked.
But the pattern was real.
Then Maribel revealed something worse.
Lucinda instructed her to provoke me at the baby shower.
Not to cause violence.
To get me emotional on camera.
“Why?”
“Mom said if you screamed, cursed, or shoved someone, it would help the postpartum narrative.”
My skin went cold.
“Did you agree?”
Maribel looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
“What did you say?”
“I told you Rosalie should’ve been mine.”
“You believed it.”
“Yes.”
“Both can be true.”
“Yes.”
Lucinda’s slap ruined her own plan by becoming the clearest violence on camera.
Irony.
Then the anonymous second copy appeared in police evidence from Lucinda’s trash after a lawful search.
Shredded.
Reconstructed partly.
Same forged signature.
But one difference.
The adoptive parent field named:
Maribel Vale.
The child’s proposed new legal name:
Rosalie Vale.
Not Sutton.
I stared.
“They planned to change her name.”
Stellan’s face turned hard.
Maribel looked away.
“I never saw that copy.”
Could be true.
Needs verification.
Then another line:
Effective placement date:
August 26.
Rosalie would be eight weeks old.
Why eight weeks?
No special adoption rule.
But Lucinda had repeatedly said “after the newborn period.”
Maybe optics.
Maybe medical.
Then First Meridian found a trust definition:
Qualifying child must be legally placed or born into branch before beneficiary’s thirty-fifth birthday.
Legally placed.
Private adoption placement could potentially satisfy even before final adoption, depending on valid consent and state law.
There.
Lucinda did not need final adoption before Maribel’s birthday.
She needed a valid legal placement.
That lowered the procedural hurdle.
Still impossible with forged consent if caught.
But enough to explain urgency.
Then the trust counsel added:
“A temporary guardianship would not qualify.”
So Lucinda needed adoption placement.
Not mere caregiving.
That was why the forged consent mattered.
Finally.
The puzzle sharpened.
Then Colbridge counsel sent a letter.
They had learned of the dispute.
They paused the joint venture voluntarily.
Good.
No company willing to close through family fraud.
Lucinda panicked.
She called Stellan from another number.
He answered with counsel recording.
“You stopped the deal.”
“No.”
“You let your wife poison everything.”
“No.”
“Maribel will lose Dad.”
“No.”
Silence.
Then Stellan said:
“Dad is already dead.”
Lucinda began crying.
He continued:
“A vote is not him.”
That sentence broke something.
Lucinda whispered:
“You don’t understand what leaves this family if she fails.”
“What?”
For the first time, she almost told him.
Then stopped.
“You’ll find out at the hearing.”
May you like
The hearing was three days away.
And Lucinda still believed the truth would frighten them back into obedience.
