Scrapbooking

Famke sat with Royal in the lawyer’s office feeling dumbfounded. “You’re telling us she has a chance?”

“Not a good one,” the lawyer sighed. “Pennsylvania has law which supports rights for visitation for grandparents.”

“Even if they’re unfit?” Royal asked, clearly as perplexed as Famke.

“Can you prove she’s unfit?”

He rubbed his forehead. “Her husband of forty years just left her because she’s off her rocker.”

“He left her because she’s unfit?”

“He left her because she’s tearing her family apart with this bullshit,” Royal countered, frustration marring his face. “I thought this would be a slam dunk. Famke is her biological mother. I was appointed her legal guardian when Prince died.”

“Yet,” the lawyer waived to the papers she was served, “Famke, you said you never intended to be part of her life.”

“No.” Famke denied this. “Not true.”

“It’s not?”

“No.”

“Explain.”

“When Prince and Mindy asked me to surrogate, they promised me I would be part of Precious’s life. While I wouldn’t play the role of mother, because Mindy was meant to, I was meant to be her godmother.”

“Her godmother?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have proof of this?”

“Yes.”

Royal turned to her incredulously. “You were supposed to be her godmother?”

She shifted uncomfortably. “Yes.”

“This is the first I’m hearing of it.”

“Royal, they lied about so much. If I started telling you every single thing, they ever said to me, we’d be chatting until we were old and grey.”

“Like what?” The lawyer asked.

“Their name for one. They told me their last name was Brown. I only found out it was Robinson when I met Royal.”

“Why did you go looking for them?” the lawyer asked quietly. When Famke didn’t answer she pushed, “it could be important.”

“I was angry. They spent every day with me from the moment of conception until the day I gave birth. Mindy and I did a scrapbook together. Prince and I made a notebook of all the names they were thinking of for their daughter. Prince moved me into their house. A house which Mindy gave me an elaborate story about owning. They told me I would be part of their lives forever because I was not only the biological mother of their child, but they told me I was family. A nursery was set up in the house and a room set up for me for post-partum recovery. I trusted them. My best friend was out of the state for school and my only family was in the hospital learning to talk and walk again. I bought into their storytelling and lies. I genuinely believed I would always be part of their lives. I was naïve and gullible.”

“So, your intention when you found them would have been?”

She looked away with embarrassment.

“Famke, honey,” Royal tugged her hand from her lap. “No matter what you say I’m not going to be upset with you.”

“I wanted her back,” she whispered.

“You wanted Precious back?” The lawyer asked curiously.

Famke didn’t miss Royal’s stunned expression.

“When I was in labour, Mindy and Prince were both in the room. She came out nearly silent. The room was somber because I was dying.”

“Dying?” The lawyer was stunned. “What do you mean?”

“During my delivery I kept passing out. Precious’s heartrate dropped rapidly. There was a discussion on whether to do an emergency C-section. It was a placental abruption. Basically, my placenta separated from the uterine wall in the minutes before delivery. When I pushed my last push to get her out, my blood pressure bottomed out. I was barely lucid. Precious came out of my womb riding a wave of blood. I was rushed to surgery.”

Royal squeezed her hand softly. “It’s okay.”

“I was in and out of consciousness as they were readying me for surgery since we were in a birthing suite and not a surgical suite. When they were wheeling me out of the room, Prince and Mindy were both with Precious. Prince told them to save my life, no matter the cost but,” she took a breath.

“But what?”

“They didn’t even spare me a glance. I mean, I get it but there was no concern or love for me, and something felt wrong. They were so different than before. I was anaesthetised and surgery was a success. They saved me and my uterus. The next morning, I asked the nurse if I could see the baby. I signed a document with the nurses the medical decisions for Precious could be overseen by Prince as her father. He chose to discharge her from the NICU.”

“NICU?”

“Precious would have been deprived of oxygen for the length of time my placenta detached. She was discharged from the hospital contrary to physician’s recommendations.”

“The doctors didn’t want her discharged?”

“No. I was livid. I was really sick, but even I knew it was a stupid decision. It pissed me off and I was scared for her. I knew there was unlikely to be any better medical treatment for her than in the hospital we were in. Everything in me screamed to get her back. They lied and if they were lying about every single detail, then most importantly, I was terrified they were lying about being good people. My mind went to everything from selling babies on the black market to maybe they criminal types who would put her in danger. They clearly didn’t care enough about her to leave her in the best hospital in the state, or so I thought.”

Royal rubbed her shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”

“I have all my texts begging him to come back with her,” she whispered as she slid her phone across the desk to the lawyer. “I’ve always used this brand of phone. I made sure each time I updated my phone, I kept my number and sim card. I kept all the messages I sent for the first year. From the moment I realized they took her from the hospital to the time I went to the house and realized it was closed up.” She reached into her bag at her feet. “The day I went into labour, I’d gone back to my apartment to pack things for the hospital and had my scrapbook and journal in the apartment, but my water broke and in the chaos the books didn’t get packed.”

She pushed the book to the lawyer and noted Royal’s eyes narrowing.

“You didn’t show me this,” he whispered. He stared at the well-worn book, the edges of the pages curled as if they’d been thumbed through every day.

“I got sick,” she whispered. “I was obsessed with them. For a full year, if I wasn’t in the hospital with Bram, I was searching for them everywhere. I went to the restaurants they loved. I went to the shops Mindy frequented. Parks, zoos, aquariums. I was desperate. I lost all my pregnancy weight and was down to a hundred and four pounds. The doctor told me I couldn’t help Bram if I was dead. Then I ran into my doctor who worked with us. I begged her to tell me what she knew about Mindy and Precious, but she said she couldn’t. She told me she barely recognized me and worried I was killing myself. She told me it was imperative for me to let it go, to let Precious go. She reminded me I was never meant to Precious’s mother and despite how angry I was and how much I wanted her back, I needed to let her go so I could be whole for Bram.”

“Oh, baby girl,” Royal reached out and stroked her cheek. “You wanted her.”

“I did. I wanted her. I didn’t trust him. My last three weeks with Mindy left a bitter taste in my mouth but the truth is, it was Prince I didn’t trust. I wanted my little girl and to know she was safe. However, I had to shift my thinking. It was imperative. For my sake and for Bram’s sake. It was the only way I could survive.”

The lawyer was listening as she went through the scrapbook. She was using a magnifying glass as she examined the photos. “Whose handwriting is this?”

“Prince’s,” Royal answered. “I have a ton of his letters in his own handwriting and it’s his. What does it say?”

“It’s a photo of us,” Famke said quietly. “A selfie he took of when I was eight months along.”

“He labeled it My Daddy and My Godmother,” the lawyer said leaning back in her chair folding her arms over her chest. “This proves they told Famke she would be part of her life. Do you think the doctor you saw would attest to the fact she told you to give up looking for Precious?”

“She would. I called her office this morning. She remembers our conversation. She told me she’s always regretted telling me to give up. She said it never sat right with her the way they abandoned me when I was dying but I appeared ill.”

“Can I ask a question, Royal?” the lawyer asked. “If Famke exercised her parental rights, what would it mean for you? If she could argue successfully her child was stolen from her because she never signed off the adoption, would your family still be as supportive?”

He was quiet as he pondered the question, reflecting quietly before he spoke. “I can’t speak for the rest of them, but I would. From the minute I realized Mindy wasn’t her mother, my goal was to reunite Precious with her mother. I have said time and time again, Precious needs Famke in her life. I cannot explain it. I had a conversation with Keshaun if it turned out my brother stole a kid from a mistress, it was my duty to return her to the person she belonged to.”

“Many women who function as surrogate using their own eggs, frequently back out and opt to keep the child. It’s one thing to carry a baby which doesn’t share your DNA for another woman. It’s an entirely different thing to use your egg, carry a child and give it away. Many women find they aren’t capable of letting go. More than once, I have seen judgements in favor of the biological mother. I can tell your right now, with the fact there was no paperwork, they gave you false names, and only a handful of people knew what was happening, you could have successfully sued for custody, Famke. You would have been able to sue them. More importantly, they kidnapped your child from you and disappeared. They both could have done jail time for kidnapping.”

“It’s too late now.”

“No, it’s not. You’re going to sue the estate of Prince and Mindy Robinson. More importantly,” the lawyer turned the album around and shoved it towards Royal and tapped at a photo. “I think your mother was in on the entire thing from the beginning. You’re going to sue her too.”

“What?” He took the magnifying glass. He froze, “holy shit.”

“What is that?” Famke leaned over his shoulder.

“This is a photo of you and Mindy posing with her hands touching your belly. Prince is sitting with his back to you, but his computer screen is up. It’s Mom. He’s in a video call with Mom. She is looking right over his shoulder at you both. There’s no way she didn’t see in the screen Mindy wasn’t pregnant.”

Famke looked to the photo of a very thin Mindy while she was eight months along.

“I want your mother on the stand, Royal. I want to know if it was her idea to kidnap a child from her biological mother.”

The lawyer’s comment stunned them both silent.