"Lisa Tuttle - A Cold Dish" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tuttle Lisa)

"I'll be back," the lawyer promised.

And, of course, she was. But she couldn't make me sign her papersтАФnobody could.
And without my agreement, no one could adopt my baby. I had given birth to him,
and he was mine, according to both natural justice and the law. At least he was
more mine than anyone else's, besides Chelsea Mott, and it wasn't Ms. Mott who
was trying to take him away from me.

Carmen saw Judge Arnold Jason and his wife conferring with the lawyer on the very
steps of the hospital. That was the deciding moment for her. Up until then, I think
she'd thought I was paranoid about Judge Jason, and that it was my "criminal
mind-set" keeping me from accepting the fairness of the punishment he'd
disinterestedly inflicted.

But if he wanted the baby I carried, how disinterested could he be?

Most women go home with their babies within twenty-four hours of giving birth, if
there are no complications. In my case, the hospital wasn't willing to let my baby go.
I knew there must be pressure on them from behind the scenes, because there was
absolutely nothing wrong with him. They were eager enough for me to get out; but I
wouldn't let them separate me from my baby. I could see perfectly well that
possession, which had worked in my favor until now, could be made to work for
someone else.

These early days were crucial, especially if the adoptive parents wanted their name
on the birth certificate.

I toyed with the lawyer, who was eager to believe I could be bought. When I told her
that I wanted to meet the potential adoptive parents first, before I made up my
mind, we both knew her protest was just for show.

He wouldn't come, and she didn't want me to know her name. But I knew.
Mrs.-Judge was not a publicity hound, but there were photos of her to be found on
the web, anyway: on her husband's arm at a charity ball, or snapped, face bleached
and startled by the flashbulb, in a restaurant. In life, she looked older than I'd
expected, maybe because her husband looked so young.

"Did you want to ask me questions?" she asked, getting straight down to business
as she came in. "We'll give the baby a good home, a wonderful life, so much love.тАж"
she darted a longing glance at my little babyтАФstill unnamed, except in my headтАФin
his clear plastic hospital bed.

"Why do you want this baby?" I asked.

She looked startled by my question, but her halting reply seemed utterly innocent.
This was the baby they'd been told they could have, that was all. And they'd been
waiting for months, ever since they'd been told.тАж It was just too hard to be let
down now.