Chapter 2 - THE DAUGHTER HE HAD NOT SEEN
At 5:40 a.m., Hannah returned from helping with another infant.
Ray was still in the chair.
Same position.
Same baby against his chest.
He had not eaten.
Had not checked his phone.
Had barely spoken.
Nurse Kelly Morgan stepped beside him.
“Sir… why are you still sitting here?”
Ray looked down at the baby.
A small photograph had slipped halfway out of the pocket of his gown.
Hannah saw a young woman with long brown hair sitting on the back of a motorcycle, laughing into the wind.
Emily.
Ray noticed the photo and pushed it back inside.
Then he pressed his cheek gently against the baby’s head.
“Because her mother was my daughter,” he said, his rough voice beginning to crack. “And she died before she ever got to hold her.”
Kelly covered her mouth.
Ray rocked the baby once.
Then twice.
“She’ll never grow up wondering if someone came.”
Hannah had assumed grief was the whole story.
It wasn’t.
At seven that morning, a hospital social worker named Claire Freeman arrived.
She sat across from Ray in a family consultation room while the baby slept under observation.
“Mr. Mercer, we need to discuss temporary placement once the baby is medically cleared.”
Ray’s expression hardened.
“She comes with me.”
Claire did not react.
“That may be possible. But we have paperwork to complete.”
“I’m her grandfather.”
“Yes.”
“I’m her only family.”
Claire glanced at the file.
“Not exactly.”
Ray’s eyes narrowed.
Emily had listed the father on hospital intake forms.
His name was Daniel Bennett.
Twenty-nine.
Married to Emily eight months earlier.
Ray stared at Claire.
“She got married?”
Claire looked surprised.
“You didn’t know?”
Ray sat back.
For the first time all night, something other than grief crossed his face.
Anger.
“No.”
“When did you last speak to your daughter?”
Ray looked toward the closed door.
“Three years ago.”
The room went silent.
Emily had not simply moved away.
May you like
She and Ray had been estranged.
And nobody at the hospital yet knew why.
