Chapter 9 - My Mother’s Choice
I expected to hate Diane.
I didn’t.
Not immediately.
She told me the story herself.
After Anna died, Diane fell into a depression so deep she barely left bed.
Then Richard confessed Laura was pregnant.
Diane wanted to divorce him.
Instead, Laura approached them.
She did not want to raise a child.
She was entering treatment.
She wanted a closed adoption.
Diane initially refused.
Then I was born.
She saw me once.
That changed something.
“I knew you were his,” she said.
“But when I held you, you were also just a baby.”
Diane agreed to adopt me.
Not to save Richard.
Not to replace Anna.
At least not consciously.
She raised me as hers.
Why never tell me?
Fear.
I would see her as fake.
See Richard as a liar.
Find Laura.
Leave.
So she chose silence.
Bad choice.
Human reason.
Both.
Then I asked:
“Why did Caleb think there was more?”
Because there was.
Richard had not merely arranged the adoption through Victor.
He used company money to pay Laura $80,000.
That made the adoption vulnerable to ugly interpretation.
Was he buying me?
No.
Records showed the payment was a settlement for Laura leaving a company position after the affair and entering treatment.
Still ethically messy.
Caleb saw it and assumed trafficking or coercion.
He wanted proof.
That was one reason he stayed away.
He feared exposing Richard might drag my adoption into public scandal.
Again, someone protecting me by hiding my life.
I was tired of being protected.
Then Sarah investigated Richard.
Still alive.
Living in Canada.
I contacted him.
No reunion.
No tears.
One question:
“Where is Caleb?”
Richard answered:
“I don’t know.”
I believed he did.
I pushed.
He finally admitted one more thing.
Caleb contacted him seven years ago.
Not fifteen.
Seven.
Alive.
He wanted money.
Why?
To pay for medical treatment.
Burn-related lung damage had worsened.
Richard sent $200,000.
Then Caleb disappeared again.
Where was the transfer sent?
Foundation:
North Harbor Assistance.
Sarah traced it.
The foundation supported whistleblowers relocating after corporate retaliation.
Director:
Lauren Hale.
No connection to me.
Caleb had apparently spent years working with anti-corruption groups under another name.
Which one?
Records were confidential.
But Richard retained one email.
Sender:
C.Mercer1989.
Caleb Mercer.
Message:
I’m not coming home until Emma knows enough to choose whether she wants me back.
I stared.
Choose?
Why would I not want my brother back?
Then Richard explained.
Before disappearing, Caleb had done something.
Something that damaged me directly.
He had given Victor access to my college trust.
At seventeen.
Victor used it to cover legal expenses after the fire.
Nearly $120,000.
Money meant for me.
Caleb believed saving Daniel’s family was worth it.
He never asked.
Again.
Another male relative deciding what belonged to me.
Mason read the email later.
Then said quietly:
“You’re going to hate him.”
I looked at him.
“No.”
“What?”
“I can be furious without pretending one decision erases my brother.”
May you like
Mason lowered his eyes.
Perhaps he understood I wasn’t only talking about Caleb.
