Chapter 3 - THE ADOPTION HEARING
Rachel was not Emily’s legal parent.
Not yet.
Emily’s biological father, Daniel Price, had died when Emily was three.
Sarah married Rachel four years later.
For the first two years, Rachel had been warm with Emily.
School pickups.
Birthday cakes.
Bedtime stories.
Then Sarah agreed to a stepparent adoption.
The final hearing was scheduled in seventeen days.
Rachel would become Emily’s second legal parent.
Permanent.
Even if Sarah and Rachel later divorced.
That had once comforted Sarah.
Recently, it had started to scare her.
The marriage had become tense.
Rachel grew controlling.
She corrected Emily constantly.
Clothes.
Food.
Homework.
Posture.
Tone.
Sarah had started wondering whether the adoption should be postponed.
She had not said it clearly.
Rachel sensed it anyway.
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Now the hearing was seventeen days away.
And a doctor was filling out a child-abuse report.
