“Me too.” Karen pulled back and looked at Naomi. “What did you decide? Do you have questions?”
They chatted for a few minutes.
Then Naomi told Karen her decision.
Karen tilted her head and squeezed her arm, not appearing surprised. “God bless you. This baby needs to be somewhere stable. I know you can give her that.”
“I don’t really know what I’m doing,” Naomi admitted. “But I’ll do my best.”
“And she’ll have a lot of help,” Micah added.
“Yes, I know she will.” Karen cast a soft, reassuring smile. “We keep emergency kits for situations like this. I can bring some supplies by.”
Micah watched Naomi’s shoulders lower a fraction, the smallest release of tension.
“Thank you,” Naomi choked out. “Really.”
Micah stepped back as arrangements were made, calls placed, and signatures finalized. He kept one eye on the hallway and the other on Naomi, aware of how quickly things were shifting.
Though he admired her choice, his apprehension remained.
Richard Harding’s name carried weight even behind bars. He knew the man was patient, vindictive, and deeply controlling. Naomi taking in his child would feel like an affront.
When Richard found out, he wouldn’t make this easy.
But Micah was determined to be close when that happened.
One woman and child had already died on his watch.
He determined to never let that happen again.
Naomi stepped back into Sissy’s hospital room and closed the door softly behind her.
Sissy looked up at once, her eyes red and swollen and her arms wrapped tight around the baby as if someone might try to take her that very second.
Hope flickered across her face, fragile and desperate, as she turned to Naomi. “Well? What did you decide?”
Naomi stopped beside the bed. For a moment, the weight of everything—Richard, Sarah, the past—pressed on her chest.
Then she looked at the baby again. At the tiny rise and fall of her breathing.
“I’m going to take her,” Naomi said. “At least for now.”
Sissy’s breath hitched. Then she broke.
She sobbed, relief pouring out of her in shaky gasps as she bowed her head over the baby. “Thank you.Thank you.I knew you wouldn’t let them take her. I knew it.”
Naomi reached out without thinking, resting a hand lightly on Sissy’s arm. For a moment, the anger she’d carried—the memories of what Sissy had done, of who she’d aligned herself with—faded beneath the raw fear of a new mother facing separation.
Naomi had made the right choice. She knew that.
Even if it terrified her.
A knock sounded at the door.
Agent Langston stepped inside, his expression professional but not unkind. “Ms. Sutton, I want to make sure you understand exactly what’s happening.”
Sissy stiffened. “Are you taking me away now?”
