Chapter 12 - Celeste’s Adoption Story
Why did Celeste want the adoption so badly?
Some answer was practical.
If I died, she wanted Ivy protected.
She loved her.
I believe that.
Another answer was emotional.
Celeste had spent eighteen months entering a household where Nora remained everywhere.
Photos.
Stories.
Ivy’s questions.
Nora’s parents visiting.
The blue mug no one else used.
The seat at Thanksgiving everyone remembered.
Celeste told her therapist:
“I felt like a substitute teacher in a class where the real teacher might come back.”
A cruel metaphor.
An honest one.
She wanted legal parenthood partly because:
“wife”
did not feel enough.
If she became Ivy’s adoptive mother, no one could call her temporary.
No one could say Nora was the only mother.
Legally, adoption after a parent’s death can add a legal parent without erasing the fact of the deceased parent’s history.
Emotionally, Celeste imagined it as promotion.
That was dangerous.
She began correcting Ivy.
Not:
“Mommy died.”
But:
“Nora died.”
Ivy resisted.
“My Mommy.”
Celeste said:
“Yes, but I’m here.”
At first mild.
Then more.
She removed one framed Nora photo from downstairs.
I asked.
She said:
“It was making Ivy sad.”
I believed.
Another went into a drawer.
Then Ivy started carrying the Cape Cod photograph.
That is how it became the object Nolan feared.
The adoption evaluator noticed:
Ivy becomes visibly distressed when petitioner discusses future maternal title.
That sentence terrified Celeste.
She thought the adoption could fail.
Maybe.
Not automatically.
The evaluator would recommend more time.
Therapy.
No forced naming.
Celeste interpreted delay as rejection.
Then Portugal became:
reset.
Get Ivy away from Nora’s pictures.
Have a fun trip.
Create positive attachment.
Return.
Reschedule interview.
No one planned permanent disappearance.
Still:
She intended to remove a child from the country without her father’s informed consent.
And when that child refused, she locked her in a suitcase.
May you like
Love without boundaries had become possession.
────────────────────
