The Baby Barter. Patty Hall Smith
voted for the baby to be named Sarah, though Ellie wasn’t too happy about the choice.”
Was Ellie one of Ms. Aurora’s children? Or had Mack adopted other children? “Ellie?”
“A little six-year-old spitfire who has lived with Ms. Aurora since she was barely two weeks old.” He sat down beside Thea then leaned toward her as if to whisper a secret. “They’d just gone to see a matinee of The Wizard of Oz and Ellie wanted the baby to be named after one of the characters.”
“But Dorothy is a nice—”
He shook his head again. “Scarecrow.”
Thea choked back a giggle. “You’re serious.”
“I had to bribe her with a day at the park to get her to agree to the name Sarah.”
Oh, dear. If Mack succeeded in his adoption plans, little Sarah would have him wrapped around her pinky finger. Lucky kid. “The sheriff bribing small children. Isn’t there a law against that?”
“Not yet. Besides, I like pushing the kids on the swing set in the park. Takes my mind off of work.”
Thea studied him as he stared out over the empty room. This was the Mack she remembered, the guy who loved being outdoors, who found joy in simple pleasures like helping his neighbor or pushing a little girl on a swing. She was glad that growing up hadn’t taken that away from him. But what about all his plans for adulthood? Why hadn’t he followed through on his dream of playing football in college, becoming a lawyer like his father? Why had he never left Marietta?
She swallowed the questions burning on the tip of her tongue. It would only complicate the situation more if she learned who Mack had become, what had driven him to stay here, to abandon his dreams. For some unknown reason, she felt disappointed at the loss. “I never intended to hurt you, you know.”
He stiffened, the pleasure of the last few minutes fading. “What do you mean by that?”
“It’s just...” She hesitated, not sure how much to reveal. Maybe if she could make him understand, make him realize how important it was to her to raise Eileen’s baby, it would be easier for him to let Sarah go. “I know you love Sarah, but I love her, too.”
“You don’t even know her.”
“She’s a part of Eileen. She’s my family, Mack.”
“You don’t know that for certain,” Mack said, her words obviously falling on deaf ears. “You’re going to have to produce some proof to get a judge to listen to your claim.”
Thea figured as much. She’d searched through Eileen’s room, through her personal mail, even the journal she kept, but had found nothing except a brief entry a few days after her baby was born. Nothing to prove Thea’s claim to Sarah. “I’d planned on visiting the courthouse after I finished my interview today.”
“No sense wasting your time.”
She glanced up at him. “Why would you say that?”
“Because if Mrs. Williams delivered Eileen’s baby like you say, it wouldn’t have been filed with the county and state yet.” A look of frustration clouded his expression. “As I told you before, Mrs. Williams went up to Tennessee to take care of her sister shortly after Sarah was born. Sarah’s birth certificate still hasn’t been filed. If you’re able to find a certificate on record for Eileen’s baby, then that would be proof that she’s not Sarah.”
That wasn’t the news Thea had expected to hear. She’d need a birth certificate to petition the court to stop the adoption. But if she needed one to prove Sarah’s parentage, wouldn’t Mack need one to get final approval for her adoption? “You can’t adopt Sarah without a certificate, can you?”
His jaw tightened, and for a brief moment, Thea thought she’d have to pull an answer out of him. Then just as quickly, he relaxed—though only a bit. “No,” he agreed, “I can’t.”
So he knew her frustration. “Have you been in touch with Mrs. Williams?”
He shrugged. “I’ve tried. I sent a letter when I learned she hadn’t filed Sarah’s birth certificate but she’s a ways outside of the city limits so I figured it would take a while before I heard from her. I checked on sending her a telegram this morning but they don’t deliver that far up into those mountains.”
“I take it her sister doesn’t have a phone.” Thea didn’t wait for an answer. She was thinking again what it must have been like for Eileen, delivering her baby all those months ago. “Do you think Mrs. Williams tried to talk any of those girls who gave up their children into keeping them?”
She felt his gaze shift to her. Could he see the pain that had consumed her in the days since she’d returned home, the fear that her only chance at a real family had died with Eileen? Or was he too centered on what losing Sarah would mean for him? His answer was to cover her hand with his, warmth to her cool skin, and she relaxed. “This thing with Eileen has really thrown you for a loop.”
“I just...” She leaned her head back against the wall, her fingers threading automatically through his as if hanging on to him for dear life. “I don’t understand why my sister would do such a thing. We weren’t in touch for these past few years, but I’ve read her journal. She talked about how much she wanted a yard full of kids, babies she could love on.” And who would love Eileen back, Thea suspected. “I can’t see her giving her baby away.”
“Maybe she realized she wasn’t ready for that kind of responsibility. Maybe she did it out of love.” Mack gently squeezed her hand.
She’d like to think her sister was that unselfish, but Eileen had spent her short life desperate for the affection she never got from their mother. Thea’s love had never been enough for her—she had wanted more. Giving up her baby, a child who would grow to love her unconditionally, wasn’t something Thea could see her sister doing. “She could have left the baby with Momma. I could have asked for an emergency discharge and come home...”
“And cleaned up the mess your sister made just like you always did?” Mack pulled his hand away as if he’d touched his fingers to a hot furnace.
“You don’t understand.” How could he? Mack had always had parents who loved him, who thought the sun and the stars rose in his every movement. How could he begin to fathom what she and Eileen had endured, living with a mother who always found fault, who only made time for them when it was convenient for her? “I’m not saying Eileen didn’t make mistakes. I know she did, but I did, too, and when I messed up, Eileen tried to be there for me. Sisters help each other out.”
“You were too easy on her. Eileen took advantage of your sweet nature. She always did.”
Thea grimaced. Yes, she probably had. But she had let Eileen down, too, at the time when her sister needed her the most. “You don’t understand.”
“I understand more than you think, Thea.” Mack leaned a hair closer to her, just enough to see his blue eyes darken to a stormy indigo, pinning her in place.
Thea shook her head then caught herself. How could she explain her sister’s behavior without Mack learning the whole truth, that this baby was not Eileen’s first? That her own mother had been in cahoots with the likes of Georgia Tann, a woman who had browbeaten and threatened countless scores of women into give up their babies so that she, under the front of a charitable institution, could go on to sell those babies to the highest bidder.
To admit what her mother had done, and the circumstances leading to it, would betray the little good that was left of her sister’s memory while revealing Thea’s own failures. She shouldn’t have taken the extra shift at work that night eight years ago, but she’d wanted to see Mack, work with him one more time before she quit to leave for college. If she had stayed home, she could have stopped her mother from ever going to the train station, before the exchange had been made with Georgia Tann.
Instead, she’d made a promise to her sister that she’d