Chapter 3
Jessamine’s hospital file answered part of that question.
Her obstetrician practiced at St. Catherine Medical Center, where Jessamine planned to deliver.
When Michael contacted the hospital’s compliance office, the staff found something unusual attached to her pre-admission record.
A document titled:
Fenmore Family Postpartum Support Plan.
Jessamine had never signed it.
The plan was not a custody order.
Not a guardianship.
Not legally capable of transferring a newborn from fit parents to a grandmother.
But it listed Sabina’s estate as the “intended postpartum recovery residence.”
It named Sabina as “primary family support coordinator.”
And it said:
If maternal recovery temporarily limits decision-making or direct infant care, family requests continuity of newborn care through Sabina Fenmore pending parental readiness.
Jessamine stared at the sentence.
“I never requested that.”
The hospital compliance officer replied:
“We understand.”
“Where did it come from?”
A private maternity concierge named Celeste Ward.
Hired and paid by Sabina.
Celeste had been given permission months earlier to coordinate:
Private-room upgrades.
Meal preferences.
Visitor lists.
Postpartum nursing.
Transportation.
Jessamine remembered signing a narrow care-coordination authorization.
It did not allow Celeste to make medical decisions.
It did not allow Sabina to take custody.
Yet the language in the uploaded plan made the arrangement sound far more official than it was.
St. Catherine immediately removed it pending review.
Then another document surfaced.
A draft:
Temporary Delegation of Parental Care Authority.
Fourteen days.
Proposed caregiver:
Sabina Fenmore.
The form was unsigned.
Callan remembered it.
His mother had emailed it three weeks earlier.
Subject:
Just in case of C-section complications.
Callan replied:
No. We will handle our child.
Sabina answered:
You don’t understand how exhausting the first two weeks are.
Callan deleted the thread from his mental list of serious problems.
Jessamine had not.
Then Jessamine’s phone produced another message.
Sabina:
The sensible thing is for the baby to come home with me until you’re stable.
Jessamine:
Stable from what?
Sabina:
Childbirth.
Jessamine:
Women give birth every day without handing their babies to their mothers-in-law.
Sabina:
Women without resources have to struggle. You don’t.
Another:
Callan will be needed at Aurelia next month. You will be recovering. I will handle her.
The baby.
A girl.
Sabina had already ordered monogrammed nursery linens for her estate.
Already purchased a crib.
Already hired a night nurse for six weeks.
Already told relatives:
“The baby will probably stay with me at first.”
Jessamine had corrected her repeatedly.
Sabina simply acted as though disagreement was a phase.
Callan sat with the messages spread across the hospital tray.
“I saw some of these.”
Jessamine looked at him.
“You saw enough.”
“Yes.”
“You thought because she couldn’t legally do it, the threat didn’t matter.”
Callan closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Jessamine’s voice softened.
“That’s the part you need to understand.”
He looked at her.
“I was never afraid she had a magical right to our daughter.”
May you like
She touched her bruised side.
“I was afraid she was building something anyway.”
