I didn’t answer. I could only stare at him.

“You didn’t leave your bed for three weeks,” he said, his eyes shining with sudden tears. “You stopped eating. You wouldn’t look at me.”

He took another step closer, his face pleading.

“The doctor told me you couldn’t handle another failure,” he said. “He said the physical and emotional toll was killing you.”

“So you bought a baby?” I whispered.

“No!” he said quickly, his voice rising. “No, it wasn’t like that.”

He wiped his face with the back of his hand, his breathing shallow.

“Rose was young, Evelyn,” he said. “She was overwhelmed, alone, and she didn’t want the child.”

“She told me she wanted her baby,” I said.

“She changed her mind back and forth a hundred times,” Richard said, shaking his head. “She was unstable. She was going to ruin that little girl’s life.”

He reached out again, and this time he caught my hands, his fingers cold and trembling.

“I saw an opportunity to save you,” he said. “To save our family.”

“By stealing her?” I asked.