It was the same nightmare she’d had for months now, but after today it would surely go away. Once the adoption was final Lana would be Maggie’s mother, just as if she had given birth to her. There would be no way anyone would be able to take her away then.
As Judge Hamilton entered the courtroom everyone rose, then sat when the bailiff indicated. Taking a second to look around the courtroom, Lana noted that the social worker, Ms. Nelson from the Florida Department of Children and Families, who had been handling her case, was seated on the right at the front of the courtroom. She watched as the older woman handed the bailiff some papers that were then given to the judge.
Apprehension sent a shiver down her back. Lana looked at her lawyer again, to see his attention glued to the judge, who was now reading over the documents the social worker had presented to him.
“This is the hearing for the final placement of the child known here as Maggie. I know that Maggie has been fostered with Ms. Sanders since...” Judge Hamilton paused as he read the documents in front of him “...since she was six weeks old, and that the child’s biological mother personally requested that Ms. Sanders be allowed to adopt her daughter.”
The judge looked up and gave Lana a smile. Lana felt the tension ease and relaxed back into her seat. Judge Hamilton had always been encouraging in her quest to adopt Maggie. She knew her case was in good hands as long as he was on the bench.
“Ms. Sanders has been forthcoming in all the demands the court has placed on her, and she has met every requirement that the Department of Children and Families demands.”
Judge Hamilton once more picked up the documents. This was it—finally he would say the words she had been waiting for and Maggie would be all hers.
“To be clear, this was to have been the last hearing and the adoption was to have become final today.”
Was to have become final? Were they going to make her jump through another hoop today?
“Ms. Nelson, you have indicated in your request to postpone the adoption that you have some new information that needs to be considered. Is that correct?”
Lana watched the social worker as she rose and walked to the front of the court room. Glancing at her lawyer for some sign as to what was happening, she noted that there was no look of surprise in his eyes as he watched the judge and the social worker quietly discussing the new documents she had handed him. When Nathan turned and took Lana’s hands his look of concern pierced her heart.
Only something truly wrong would cause that kind of reaction in Nathan.
Amanda reached for her other hand and, looking at her, Lana saw the fear that she knew mirrored her own. Maggie, thinking this was a game in which she was not included, pulled at the adults’ hands and started babbling in her sweet baby voice.
Lana released her hold on the others and wrapped her arms around her little girl. Okay, so there was another delay. There had been several over the last year. They had managed to clear each hurdle to get to this point, and if there was something else the court wanted from her she could handle it.
“It has come to the court’s attention that there is a new petition to stop this adoption by someone who claims to be a family member—a brother of the biological father,” Judge Hamilton stated.
Lana’s heart stuttered for a moment, then raced forward at a speed that had a gasp escaping into the quiet court room. She pressed Maggie closer to her chest as she felt the adrenaline rush hit her, telling her either to run or prepare to fight. She clasped Maggie tightly, needing to feel the reassurance that only physically holding her child in her arms could give her.
“Is the person petitioning the court present?” the judge asked.
Lana watched her nightmare play out in front of her as the cowboy she’d seen earlier rose to his feet.
“I’m Trent Montgomery, Judge Hamilton, and I have reason to believe that I’m Maggie’s uncle.”
* * *
Trent walked into the small room at the side of the courtroom and took a seat at the small rickety table. Across the table sat the young woman he had met going into the courtroom—the woman he now knew as Lana Sanders.
He was surprised he hadn’t recognized her from the picture he had found among the items his brother had had when he was taken to the hospital. Of course the young woman pictured smiling at the toddler whose hand she held looked young and carefree, with her hair flying all around her face as a breeze blew through the blond strands, while the woman he had opened the door for was all business, in her tailored skirt and blouse and her hair pulled back in some sort of clip.
Now the woman had let her hair down in more than one way, and her bright green eyes shot daggers at him as she talked with an older woman with steel-gray hair and eyes to match. He had no doubt that at that moment she wanted nothing more than to come over to the table where he sat.
Not that he didn’t understand the kind of anger she was feeling. When his brother’s lawyer had contacted him about the child he had wanted to hit something—anything—just to be able to take out the anger he’d felt at his brother. How could his brother have kept it from him that he had a little girl?
The lawyer had stated that Michael hadn’t believed the contents of the letter he had received from his ex-girlfriend. But when the private detective he had hired had brought back pictures of a smiling toddler with coal-black ringlets and bright blue eyes, he’d known that the child was his.
After the lawyer had read Michael’s will, and left some pictures of the child, Trent had come to the same conclusion as his brother. The child could only be a Montgomery. Another Montgomery child that had been abandoned.
He’d looked at those pictures a lot during the last two weeks, as he had tried to decide what to do about the child. She looked happy, smiling at the pretty blond woman, who smiled back with a love that seemed to pour out of the picture.
Why would he want to take this child away from this woman who appeared to love her? And what did he know about raising a little girl? Sitting there across from a woman who plainly wished a hole would open up and swallow him, he wondered for the hundredth time why he’d uprooted his life to come somewhere he didn’t want to be and where he certainly didn’t have a clue about what he was doing.
But he would go through with it. Because his brother had asked him to take care of this child if something happened to him. And because the little girl was a Montgomery, and that made her his responsibility.
He had failed to keep his brother safe from his father’s destructive influence, but he wouldn’t fail this child. On paper, Lana Sanders looked like the perfect mom, but Trent knew better than to believe everything he read. He would protect Michael’s child as he should have protected Michael.
Once the court awarded him custody of his niece he would pack up and head back to Houston, where he belonged. Somehow he would have to find a way to make things work till then.
* * *
“Lana, I want to tell you first that I know this isn’t going to be easy for you. You’ve been taking care of Maggie for months now, and I know you love her very much. Second, you need to know that the court has to consider any interest the biological family has in Maggie.” Ms. Nelson the social worker stated. “I’ve seen the letter they have from Chloe, telling Mr. Montgomery’s brother about her pregnancy. And then, of course, there’s the resemblance that none of us can deny.”
“And where was this biological family when she was six weeks old with no one to take care of her?” Lana spat out.
She looked across the table at the man who had been sitting quietly as she had questioned the social worker. Those blue eyes that she had found