Chapter 5 - Clement Street
Rebecca investigated the apartment address.
A two-bedroom furnished unit had been reserved for three months.
Tenant:
Hale Family Services LLC.
The company belonged to Clarissa.
Occupant listed:
Morwenna Hale.
Emergency contact:
Dorian Hale.
I had never seen the lease.
The apartment had been booked beginning:
Four days before my due date.
Security deposit:
Paid.
First month:
Paid.
Clarissa’s attorney later argued:
“It was a contingency residence in case Morwenna wanted postpartum privacy.”
Except I had never asked for privacy from my own child.
Then the email.
Clarissa to Dorian:
She can recover at Clement for a few weeks. The baby should not be dragged between houses while she’s hormonal and exhausted.
Dorian:
She won’t agree.
Clarissa:
She won’t agree now. After labor she’ll be different.
That sentence frightened me.
Not because labor removes capacity automatically.
It does not.
Because they expected vulnerability to make resistance easier.
Then another message:
If she refuses, we use the parenting packet and keep things calm until court.
There.
Not a legal plan that magically removed a newborn.
A pressure plan.
Apartment.
Documents.
Nursery.
May you like
A prepared story.
And one exhausted woman expected to wake from childbirth inside it.
