The legal papers arrived by messenger a week later, and they were worse than feared.
Valerie had not gone quietly after her fall. She had spent her last money and her last days finding one open door — and the hospital, terrified of ruin, had agreed to fight to protect itself. Their first move was a claim that the insemination was meant for Valerie, and that Makayla had been the mistake.
Makayla read it twice, and the words burned. "They're saying he should have been hers," she said faintly.
"Not should have," Declan said flatly. "They're saying the intended patient was Valerie, and that the error was the hospital's, and that the child's custody is therefore contested. They want to turn our son into a possession to be argued over in a courtroom."
The weight of it came down on her. The s
