Chapter 4 — Evelyn Never Wanted to Disappear
Stellan turned to the second page.
The doctor had arrived and examined Merrick.
The baby was frightened but showed no immediate sign of injury.
He recommended further observation and a hospital assessment because of the fall.
Adeline was preparing the baby bag.
But Stellan kept reading.
Near the bottom of the adoption order was a reference to a separate consent statement.
It summarized Evelyn’s conditions.
Biological mother consents to adoption with understanding that reasonable familial contact may continue and child’s biological history shall be disclosed at an age deemed appropriate.
Stellan read it twice.
Then a third time.
“Disclosure?”
Rowena remained silent.
“It says I was supposed to be told.”
“At an appropriate age.”
Rowena finally spoke.
“Yes.”
“What age was appropriate?”
“It wasn’t specified.”
Stellan laughed bitterly.
“I’m thirty-six.”
“Were you waiting for forty?”
Rowena flinched.
Adeline stopped packing for a moment.
Stellan continued reading.
“Reasonable familial contact may continue.”
He looked toward Rowena.
“Evelyn didn’t agree to disappear.”
Rowena shook her head.
“No.”
“Then why did she?”
“She didn’t.”
Stellan stared.
Rowena sat down slowly.
“Not completely.”
Evelyn had been twenty-one when Stellan was born.
She was unmarried.
The family was traditional.
The baby’s father had left before the birth and never became part of Stellan’s life.
Rowena was twelve years older than Evelyn.
Already married to Edmund.
Financially secure.
Unable at the time to have children of her own.
The family proposed an adoption.
Rowena said it would give Stellan stability.
Evelyn initially refused.
Then struggled financially after his birth.
She moved into Rowena’s home.
For more than a year, both sisters cared for Stellan.
Eventually Evelyn agreed to the adoption.
But only under one emotional condition:
She would not be erased.
“She wanted to remain in my life?” Stellan asked.
Rowena nodded.
“Yes.”
“As my mother?”
“Not publicly.”
“But she wanted you to know eventually.”
“Yes.”
Stellan looked sick.
“When?”
Rowena stared at the floor.
“She first asked me to tell you when you were ten.”
Stellan stopped.
He remembered being ten.
Evelyn had visited frequently that year.
Then suddenly much less.
“What happened?”
Rowena answered quietly.
“I said you were too young.”
“Then?”
“She asked again when you were sixteen.”
“And?”
“I said adolescence was already difficult enough.”
Stellan stared.
“Then when I was eighteen?”
Rowena did not answer.
He understood anyway.
“She asked again.”
Rowena nodded.
Stellan’s eyes filled.
“How many times?”
Rowena looked toward him.
“More than I can defend.”
Then Stellan remembered the final private conversation he had ever had with Evelyn.
Only months before her death.
She had started to tell him something.
And Rowena had interrupted them.