“He told me to get rid of the baby. He said a child would ruin his plans. He wrote that no sane man would tie himself down for eighteen years because a woman couldn’t keep her life together. He called our daughter a mistake.”
People in the room shifted, some looking at the floor. Lily didn’t understand everything, but she felt enough. Her fingers gripped my sleeve.
I opened another message.
“After I told him I was keeping the baby, he said I was trapping him. He wrote that no judge would force a man to give up his freedom because a woman made bad choices. He swore he would never be a father to my child.”
Bradley’s jaw tightened. Sweat formed along his hairline. He glanced at the tablet where comments flew past too fast to read.
“I’m sure your client forgot to mention these,” I said. “Or that he’s crawling back now only because he thinks there’s money.”
My parents murmured excuses. I ignored them. I opened a photograph the hospital nurse had shown me seven years earlier: termination of parental rights. His signature, sloppy but unmistakable. He didn’t just talk. He signed away his rights. Laughing.