I’d known Raymond for fifteen years, and I’d never heard him laugh during an interview.
“One last question,” Raymond said. “What happens after? After you deliver the baby and the contract ends. What do you do then?”
“I go back to my life,” Truth said. “I use the money to build something better. I don’t look back. I don’t ask questions. I don’t show up at his door asking to see the baby or trying to be part of their life. I walk away clean. That’s the deal.”
“And you can do that?”
Another pause.
Longer this time.
“I don’t know,” Truth said honestly. “I’ve never done this before. I don’t know what it’s going to feel like to carry a baby for nine months and then give it away. But I know what I’m signing up for. And I know I’m strong enough to do hard things. So, yeah. I can do it.”
I closed my eyes.
Honest.
Brave.
Real.
She wasn’t performing. She wasn’t trying to be what she thought I wanted.
She was just… herself.
And that terrified me.
Because I wanted her.
Not just as a surrogate.
Not just as the solution to my problem.
I wantedher.
Raymond’s chair scraped against the floor.
“Thank you, Ms. Renois,” he said. “You’ve answered all my questions. I’m going to step out for a moment and confer with my client. He’ll meet with you shortly.”
“Okay.” Her voice was small now. Nervous again. “Thank you. For your time. And for—I mean, thank you.”
She was talking again.
Filling the silence.
I pushed off the wall and moved silently down the hallway, back toward my office.
By the time Raymond found me, I was sitting at my desk, hands folded, expression neutral.
“Well?” I said.
Raymond closed the door behind him.
“She’s perfect,” he said.
I already knew that.
I’d known it the moment I heard her voice.
