Olivia hesitated, then reached down with a trembling hand.

She opened the folder, the dry paper rustling in the quiet room.

The firelight illuminated the typed pages as she flipped through them.

I watched her eyes scan the legal jargon and the signatures at the bottom of the page.

“This is a custody petition,” Olivia whispered, her face losing all of its color.

“It’s dated three months ago.”

“Yes,” I said.

“While you were still pregnant.”

“She was already preparing to declare you an unfit mother.”

“She was going to take him and leave you with nothing.”

“And she was going to blame me for it,” I added.

Ethan stepped forward from the doorway, his head bowed, unable to look Olivia in the eye.

“It’s true, Olivia,” Ethan said quietly.

“My mother told me she couldn’t let a surrogate raise a Lawson heir.”

“She just needed you to carry him until he was born.”

“Then she was going to pay off the judge to grant her sole guardianship.”

Olivia dropped the papers back onto the table.

She sank onto the sofa, burying her face in her hands.