Selena Kitt: Grace

“Enough!” The judge banged his gavel, making her jump. “So help me, you will be held in contempt! Do you understand?”

She nodded, too afraid to speak, shrinking down against her husband’s side.

“Mrs. Nolan-do you understand me?”

“Yes,” Leah croaked, clearing her throat and repeating it. “Yes, Judge. I’m sorry.”

Donald gave her a stern look too and Leah felt her mother’s hand in hers, squeezing, reassuring, as the questioning resumed.

“Did you or did you not inform Mrs. Nolan of her rights.”

“All the girls at Magdalene House are informed,” the ghoul snapped. “They sign a statement of rights upon their admission. It’s kept in their file.”

“Did you read Mrs. Nolan those rights?”

The ghoul looked directly at Leah. “It would be Mrs. Nolan’s responsibility to do so.”

“So you don’t know if Mrs. Nolan read the statement of rights?”

The ghoul threw up her hands. “She signed a statement of rights. It’s in her file. Would you like to see it?”

“No, thank you, I’ve seen it. Mr. Talley was kind enough to send me a copy.” Donald leaned against the railing of the witness box, like they were just having a conversation, asking, “Did you tell Mrs. Nolan that she had six months to change her mind?”

The ghoul rebuffed him. “That information is in the statement of rights.”

“Did you inform Mrs. Nolan that her baby had already been promised to an adoptive couple?”

“No I did not.”

Leah gaped at her. Now she wasn’t just avoiding his questions. That was a flat out lie. She felt her mother squeeze her hand again, a warning, and she looked down at her lap, trying to keep from jumping out of her seat again.

“Did you tell Mrs. Nolan that she would be responsible for the hospital bills, and that she would have to pay them before she would be allowed to leave with her baby?”

“Of course not.”

Another lie.

“Did you tell Mrs. Nolan that there was social assistance available to her if she wanted to keep her baby?”

“That information is in the statement of rights.”

“Of course, you said that.” Donald gave a nod, turning as if he was done, and then turning back again. “Did you happen to give a copy of those rights to Mrs. Nolan?”

“They’re in her file.”

“So you said, but did she get a copy?” Donald asked. “She’s an adult, she can sign a legally binding contract. Did you give her a copy of that contract?”

“I’m sure I did.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes.”

Donald nodded. “Was Mrs. Nolan offered independent legal counsel to explain the legal document to her and protect her rights? Was she informed of the legal ramifications of what she was signing?”

The ghoul blinked at him. “Mrs. Nolan is an adult, as you said, Mr. Highbrow.”

“Being an adult doesn’t exclude you from having the right to legal counsel.”

“We don’t provide legal counsel,” the ghoul replied. “It would be up to Mrs. Nolan to retain legal counsel, if she wanted it.”

“Was legal counsel present when Mrs. Nolan signed the adoption agreement?”

“No.”

“Was anyone else present? Any witnesses?”

“No.”

“Did you inform Mrs. Nolan of what she was signing?”

“Of course.”

“You didn’t tell her she was signing hospital discharge papers?”

“No, of course not.”

Donald nodding, satisfied. “Thank you, Mrs. Goulden. You may step down.”

When the ghoul passed them, smirking and triumphant, Leah squeezed her mother’s hand so hard she left crescent shaped marks on her poor palm from her nails.

“I’d like to call Rebecca Daley to the stand, your honor.”

Leah looked at Rob, her brows drawn together. She had no idea who that was, and from the confused look on his face, he didn’t either. Why hadn’t the lawyer told them about her?

Someone passed them on the left, approaching the witness stand, and Leah watched the girl walk, something familiar about her, but she wasn’t sure what. When Rebecca took the stand, sitting in the witness box and putting her hand on the Bible, Leah’s jaw dropped, looking over at Erica, and her sister grinned, giving her a thumbs-up.

Elizabeth.

They were all assigned fake names at Magdalene House, and the nuns reused everything, including their names, so there was always a new Jean or a new Lily moving in. After little Lizzie-Carolyn-had given birth, a new Elizabeth had arrived, a haughty girl that no one liked with dark, short bobbed hair and a scandalous rose tattoo on her thigh.

It was that rose tattoo that had allowed Leah to identify her at the Mary Magdalene ritual, strapped on the cross beside Erica, dressed in red instead of white, her belly huge. She was due right around the same time as Leah, and had given birth after the ritual, she remembered, maybe a day or two before Leah had gone into labor with Grace.

But what in the world could she contribute here, to Donald’s case? Leah had no idea, and she watched, they all did, as Donald questioned his new witness, establishing her history, that she lived in Ann Arbor and attended catholic school there, she was the daughter of a prominent local politician, and she had been at Magdalene House with Leah, sharing a room with her at the house for a brief time.

“You shared another room with Mrs. Nolan, didn’t you, Rebecca?”

“Only for a few hours,” she said. “I was supposed to go home, but I spiked a fever and the doctors wouldn’t release me. They’d already filled my private room, so they put me in one of the other rooms until they could get me a new one.”

“So you were in the same room as Mrs. Nolan?”

“Yes. There were lots of other girls too. I think they had ten of us crowded in there. It was… deplorable.” Rebecca wrinkled her nose in distaste and Leah remembered why they hadn’t liked the “new Elizabeth” much when she arrived. She always got special treatment, but now that Leah knew who her father was, it made much more sense.

“So where were you, in relation to Mrs. Nolan?”

“I was in the bed next to her.”

Leah blinked in disbelief. It must have only been a few hours-she didn’t remember Elizabeth-Rebecca-being there at all. But she did remember the curtain next to her being closed. She assumed the girl next to her just wanted privacy to feed her baby.

“Did you know Mrs. Nolan?” Donald asked.

“Only as Lily. And I was Elizabeth. They gave us fake names.” She wrinkled her pretty, pert nose at that too. “But I knew who she was. We stayed in the same room at Magdalene House.”

“Did you talk to Mrs. Nolan when you were transferred in her hospital room?”

“No.” She made a face. “And I wasn’t transferred. It was just a holding area until they could find another private room for me because the idiots gave mine away. Anyway, I kept my curtain closed. I wasn’t feeling well.”

“Did you happen to overhear a conversation between Mrs. Goulden and Mrs. Nolan-the girl you knew as Lily?”

Rebecca looked straight at the ghoul, her gaze never wavering. “Yes, I did.”

“Objection!” Frank jumped up, waving his yellow legal pad. “Hearsay!”

“You need to go back to law school, Frank,” the judge said wryly. “That’s direct testimony.”

“But… but…” Frank fumbled, flustered. “But she heard it through a curtain!”

Judge Solomon looked at him over his glasses for a long time, and finally he just shook his head and said, “Overruled. Proceed, Mr. Highbrow.”

“What did you hear, Rebecca?”

“I heard the ghoul-Joan Goulden-ask Lily-er, Mrs. Nolan, that girl.” Rebecca pointed to Leah, who was sitting on the edge of her seat, eyes wide, heart racing in her chest.