Chapter 8 - THE FILE MARKED 1986
Harold Reed brought the file the next morning.
Not the original.
Certified copies.
The originals stayed in secure storage.
Daniel noticed.
“Good.”
Reed looked mildly surprised.
Daniel had begun reading documents differently.
The folder came from the law practice of Reed & Reed.
Harold's father, Samuel Reed, had handled the matter.
The first page:
PRIVATE PLACEMENT / INFANT D.H.
Daniel looked at the initials.
“Me.”
Reed nodded.
Next:
Prospective adoptive parents: Walter Hayes / Grace Hayes.
Daniel stopped.
He did not turn the page.
Nobody spoke.
Then he looked at Walter.
“You adopted me.”
Walter nodded.
“Yes.”
Daniel looked toward Eleanor.
Her face had gone wet before his had.
“Who are my parents?”
Reed answered carefully.
“The legal parents listed after finalization were Walter and Grace Hayes.”
Daniel stared.
“That is not what I asked.”
“No.”
Reed looked at Eleanor.
She nodded.
The next page was a consent document.
Birth mother:
Eleanor Grace Bell.
Age:
Daniel read her name.
Again.
Then looked at Eleanor.
“No.”
She did not move.
“No.”
His voice dropped.
“You're my mother.”
Eleanor answered:
“I gave birth to you.”
Daniel stood.
Walter reached toward him.
Daniel stepped away.
“Don't.”
Walter stopped.
Daniel stared at Eleanor.
“You've been in this room two days.”
“Yes.”
“You let me call you my mother's sister.”
“She was my sister.”
“You let me call her my mother.”
“She was.”
Daniel's face twisted.
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes.”
Eleanor wiped her cheek.
“I was afraid if I said it before you saw the record, you'd think I came here to take something from you.”
“You did come here.”
“Because Walter asked.”
“You accepted money.”
“Yes.”
“From my father.”
“Yes.”
“Who is apparently also not my father.”
Walter flinched.
Eleanor's voice sharpened.
“He is your father.”
Daniel looked at her.
“He raised you.”
“Everybody keeps saying that like it fixes the sentence before it.”
“No.”
Eleanor shook her head.
“It doesn't.”
Daniel looked at Reed.
“Biological father?”
Reed turned one page.
Name:
Not disclosed in final adoption petition.
Daniel stared.
“Not disclosed?”
Eleanor looked down.
“I know who he was.”
Was.
“Dead?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Twenty-two years ago.”
“Name.”
Eleanor took a breath.
“Michael Price.”
Same surname Eleanor used now.
Daniel frowned.
“You married him?”
“No.”
“Then why Price?”
“I took the name later.”
Daniel stared.
Eleanor continued.
Michael was twenty-two.
Eleanor eighteen.
They were together less than a year.
When she became pregnant, Michael wanted to marry.
She did not.
Why?
Because he drank.
Because he hit a wall during one argument.
Because once he grabbed her hard enough to bruise her wrist.
She left.
Not a monster biography.
Specific.
He later signed a consent relinquishing parental rights after separate counsel.
Daniel looked at Reed.
“Is that in there?”
“Yes.”
Good.
No erased father.
Then Daniel asked the harder question.
“Why Grace?”
Eleanor looked at Walter.
Walter did not answer.
Eleanor did.
“Because she was stable.”
Grace was twenty-five.
Married.
Wanted children.
Had already suffered two miscarriages.
Eleanor had no apartment.
No job that lasted longer than a few weeks.
Their father wanted the pregnancy hidden.
Grace offered something nobody else did.
Not:
Give me the baby.
Instead:
Stay with us.
Eleanor moved into their house during the final trimester.
For six weeks after Daniel was born, she remained there.
Then she left.
Daniel's voice broke.
“You lived with me.”
“Yes.”
“For six weeks.”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
Eleanor looked at Walter.
“He says I left.”
Walter's face tightened.
Daniel heard it.
“What do you say?”
Eleanor answered:
“I say I was told to.”
The major secret had finally opened.
May you like
It did not make the past clearer.
It split it in two.
