The Surrogate, The Sudarium Trilogy - Book one by Foglia Leonard & Richards David

Author:Foglia, Leonard & Richards, David [Foglia, Leonard]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: House on the Hill
Published: 2011-08-07T18:30:00+00:00

1:28

“They’re liars. I’m not going to give them this baby. They lie to my face.” Hannah paced the parlor of the rectory angrily, while Father Jimmy listened to her outburst, a bit helplessly, although he was trying not to let the helplessness show on his face. Hannah Manning had seemed perfectly normal, when she had rung the rectory doorbell a few minutes ago and asked if she could speak with him briefly. Apologetic even, that she might be taking up his time.

But as soon as she had started unburdening herself, she had become progressively more distraught. The problem as he understood it - and he wasn’t sure he understood it that well - was that Hannah now felt threatened by the people she was living with, the Whitfields. Or more accurately, she felt that her baby was threatened. But, of course, it wasn’t her baby. She had a contract -legally drawn up, he presumed - to carry their baby to term for them.

Now that she wanted to keep the baby for herself, she seemed to be intent on manufacturing a case against the Whitfields. But the evidence, he found himself thinking, was slim. The adoption agency had changed addresses without informing her. Mrs. Whitfield had told her she’d been unable to have children, but Hannah was convinced that she already had a grown son - a conclusion drawn from a message left on an answering machine, no less. Then there was something about the Whitfields walking around their garden in the middle of the night, which was unusual, granted, but not incriminating. People, who liked their gardens, liked to see them at different times of the day, in different light. Moonlight even.

What Father Jimmy found harder to dismiss was Hannah’s emotional state. She had lost a lot of her composure since the summer and grown nervous and jittery. He was glad she had come back to the church - and regular confession - but was saddened that it didn’t provide her with all the solace she needed. His advice to be frank and open with the Whitfields and the lady who ran the agency had only made her warier.

He knew pregnancy was a turbulent time in a woman’s life. Still, he was reluctant to conclude it was just her raging hormones that were talking. Something was wrong, and the worst part was that he didn’t know how to fix it.

“You think this is all in my mind, don’t you,” Hannah said.

“No, I don’t, Hannah. There are real reasons, I’m sure, for your feeling the way you do. But they may not be the reasons you think. Becoming a mother activates all the memories you have of your own parents. You’ve told me how abandoned you felt, after the car crash. Perhaps you’re afraid, if you give the child over to the Whitfields, you will be abandoning it.”

“What you’re saying is I’m upset because of an accident that happened seven years ago?”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying.” He took a deep breath.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.