She looked out the window, her eyes reflecting the gray, wet street outside.

“The nurses told me there were complications,” Rose said. “They took Claire away almost immediately.”

“They had to put her in the incubator,” I said, remembering what Richard had told me. “He said she was weak.”

“That’s what he told you,” Rose said, looking back at me.

Her eyes were dark, filled with a sudden, desperate intensity.

“But that’s not what happened to me,” Rose said. “The next morning, a doctor I had never seen before came into my room with two police officers.”

I felt the air leave my lungs.

“They told me I was unfit,” Rose whispered. “They said they had reports about my lifestyle.”

“What reports?” I asked.

“Files,” Rose said. “Medical records I had never seen. Police reports from towns I had never even visited.”

She leaned closer across the table, her breath smelling faint of mint.

“Richard was there, Evelyn,” she said.

My hand flew to my mouth.

“He wasn’t there as an adoptive father,” Rose said. “He was standing with the administrator.”