Chapter 6 - The Adoption
I had agreed to the adoption because I thought it would protect Ivy.
If I died, Celeste would remain legal parent.
If she needed to sign school papers.
Medical.
Travel.
Everyday family life.
We had been married eight months.
Too fast?
Maybe.
At the time:
No.
Ivy called her Celeste.
Never Mom.
Celeste said she was fine with that.
She had been gentle around Nora’s memory publicly.
I believed stability mattered.
Our family lawyer prepared the petition.
Then the required social work assessment began.
One preliminary report included:
Ivy demonstrates secure primary attachment to father and maintains active symbolic attachment to deceased mother. She refers to petitioner as Celeste and resists maternal naming language.
Normal.
Then:
Child stated, “Mommy said Celeste doesn’t take me on airplanes.”
That sentence reached the evaluator.
She asked me.
I laughed awkwardly.
“Nora hated flying.”
Not true.
Nora loved travel.
I had forgotten the old consent incident completely.
The social worker requested a follow-up with Ivy alone.
Celeste read the appointment email because it came to our shared family calendar.
That was three days before the suitcase.
Then she contacted Nolan.
Phone records later showed eleven calls.
She booked Portugal.
Why not just cancel interview?
Because rescheduling would raise questions.
Why Portugal?
Nolan already had access to discounted corporate apartment inventory in Lisbon.
Easy.
Familiar.
He told Celeste:
“Take her away for ten days. Let everything cool down.”
Not permanent kidnapping in his mind.
Still removal without my informed consent.
Celeste believed if she delayed the interview, she could:
“reset Ivy’s language.”
That phrase appeared in a text.
Nolan:
Reset how?
Celeste:
Get her away from Nora stuff. She repeats everything she sees.
There.
Nora’s photographs.
Ivy’s memories.
The adoption evaluator.
Celeste did not merely fear a travel-document fraud being exposed.
She feared Ivy’s attachment to Nora would expose how aggressively she had been trying to become:
Mom.
The suitcase came later.
May you like
After Ivy refused to leave without Nora’s framed photograph.
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