Selena Kitt - Grace

Donald Highbrow turned to the court stenographer. “Let the record show that the witness has identified Leah Nolan.”

“I heard her ask Leah to sign hospital discharge papers.”

“You’re certain.”

“I am.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I heard her.” Rebecca blinked at him, giving him an exasperated look. “She even said the nurses asked her to do it. The ghoul said, ‘The nurses are so busy, they asked me to have you sign the discharge papers before you leave.’ It was clear as day. Besides, I wouldn’t put it past her. She did the same thing to me.”

The whole room was silent and Leah thought she could hear her own heart beating, like a big bass drum in her ears. It was deafening.

“Objection!” Frank jumped up so fast, several people gasped in surprise. Leah was still too stunned to say anything. “Irrelevant!”

Judge Solomon shook his head. “Nope. I’ll allow it. Go ahead, Donald.”

“The ghoul-I mean, Mrs. Goulden-” Several people tittered at Donald’s mistake. “She did the same thing to you? What do you mean?”

“She tricked me. She knew I wanted to keep my baby, and she didn’t want me to keep it. She tricked me!” Rebecca stared down the ghoul, whose face was red, even with all the makeup coverage. “Except instead of discharge papers, she told me I was signing permission for the doctors to commit an autopsy.”

Donald’s eyes widened. “An autopsy?”

“Because she told me my baby was stillborn.”

Leah made a small, pained sound and felt Rob’s hand in hers, her mother’s still clutching her other one. How could she? How dare she?

Leah might not have liked Rebecca-the girl she had known only as “the new Elizabeth”-but when she saw the girl look at her, their eyes locking, she knew their bond went beyond like or dislike. This wasn’t about something so petty. They were both mothers, and they had been denied their rights as mothers by the same woman.

Donald let the judge absorb that information before he leaned in and asked gently, “And was your baby stillborn, Rebecca?”

“No.”

“How do you know that?”

The girl’s eyes were blazing with triumph when she looked across the courtroom at the ghoul. “Because my father got my baby back.”

“Your father, the senator?”

“That’s right.” Rebecca had clearly lived a life of privilege. It was the same attitude that had rubbed all the girls the wrong way at Magdalene House. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t human, that she didn’t have feelings. Leah saw that on her face when she told Donald, “When my Daddy visited me, I told him they said my baby died, but I knew he didn’t die. I heard him cry. I was drugged, I know-they had me on something really weird. But I heard him cry, I know I did .”

“Did your father pursue this matter for you, Rebecca?”

She scoffed. The idea! “He hired people to pursue it. And they found my baby.”

“Thank you, Rebecca.” Donald looked over his shoulder at the older lawyer. “Frank? Your witness.”

Frank didn’t even get up from his table. He just sat back and muttered, “I have no questions, Your Honor.”

“She’s lying!” The ghoul came rushing up the aisle, past where Leah and her family were sitting, rushing the witness box in a rage. “This little slut is lying!”

The ghoul turned her fury on the lawyer for the state next. “Frank! Don’t you dare just sit there and let that little trollop get away with this!”

Donald Highbrow took a step back as the ghoul stomped toward the judge’s bench, banging her fist on front of it. “This is an outrage! This little whore is a flat-out liar! A compulsive liar in fact!” A sly look came over the ghoul’s face as she looked at Rebecca. “Go ahead, check her file!”

Donald gave a weary sigh. “Do you want to me to call the rest of the girls in, Your Honor? All of the girls in the hospital room with Mrs. Nolan who witnessed Mrs. Joan Goulden misrepresenting the documents she asked her client to sign?”

Judge Solomon looked from Rebecca, out into the courtroom to where Leah was sitting, and then back to the ghoul, who was still fuming and sputtering in front of him about sluts and whores and trollops and liars.

“That won’t be necessary.” The gavel came down, a sharp, sudden sound, making Leah jump in her seat. “This court rules for the plaintiff. Baby… Baby…” Judge Solomon looked down at his file. “Baby Grace shall be returned to her mother.”

The whole courtroom exploded in cheers-not just Leah and Rob and her mother and Erica and Clay, who were all hugging and laughing, but everyone who had been watching the drama unfold before them. Leah couldn’t believe it, feeling the finality of the judge’s statement in every cell of her body.

She turned to Rob, eyes bright, as if to ask, “Did you hear that too?” but the look of relief and joy on his face told her that he had heard it too-she wasn’t dreaming. Their daughter was coming home. She threw her arms around his neck, laughing and crying at the same time, and he rocked her, whispering words she couldn’t hear but she didn’t care. Grace was theirs, now and forever.

Grace was returning home.

Leah saw the ghoul out of the corner of her eye, storming over to where Frank sat with his head in his hands and they put their heads together, plotting she was sure of it, while the judge excused Rebecca as a witness. Leah looked up as she walked over, standing to take the girl’s outstretched hand.

“Thank you,” Leah whispered, still not quite clear on how Rebecca had gotten involved, but she had never been so grateful to someone in her life. “I don’t know how to thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Rebecca gave a satisfied nod, glancing over at the ghoul. “She stole my baby too. Only she told me he was dead.”

“But you knew he wasn’t.” Leah’s eyes filled with tears at the thought.

Rebecca looked back at her, eyes softening. “A mother knows.”

They both smiled, an understanding passing between them that transcended hierarchy and class and judgment. They were both mothers, and they both knew exactly how that felt.

Donald came over, a giant grin on his face, and Leah hugged him without a second thought.

“I don’t know how you did that,” Leah said. “It was like magic. You pulled Rebecca out of your hat just like a rabbit!”

“Well don’t tell anyone but I was bluffing about all the other witnesses. Rebecca was our only trump card.” Donald laughed, hugging her back and planting a fond kiss on the top of her head before letting her go. “Well I had a fairy godmother. Erica and Clay helped me track her down. With Father Michael’s help. So it was magic, plus Nancy Drew and her Hardy Boy over there, with a sprinkle of divine intervention. And luck. Definitely a dash of luck.”

“I’m going to have to hear this story!” Leah looked over at Erica and Clay, bemused. “How in the world did you know she’d been in the room. I didn’t even know!”

“I interviewed the nurses,” Donald replied. “There was a young nurse named Cathy who remembered you, and she remembered Elizabeth too, but she couldn’t remember her real name, just her Magdalene name.”

The judge banged his gavel and the commotion began to die down. Judge Solomon banged it again, making sure they all knew he was serious.

“I have other cases to hear today,” the judge said. “Can we please have quiet in the courtroom?”

Leah was about to ask Donald what was next, how did they go about getting Grace back? But Frank took advantage of the opportunity to speak up.

“Your honor!” Frank stood, clearing his throat. “May I approach the bench?”