What do you mean they’ll take it from here?” Unbelievably, he was already feeling alarmed. “Are they just gonna take him from me?”
“Absolutely. They’ll take him straight to the hospital to get him checked out and rule out any illnesses or abuse—of any kind. Then he’ll be put in emergency foster care until they know for sure he hasn’t been kidnapped and the real parents aren’t out there frantically looking for him. Even if you can prove you’re his dad, just ’cause you made him doesn’t mean you’re fit to be a parent. A child is a very delicate thing. If you really want to keep him, you’ll have to prove you’re fit. It’s a whole process. They’ll check your background, test you for drugs, and even send someone out to check out your living arrangements. But you gotta call them, O, or you’ll be in a lot of trouble, and I’ll tell you this much: if they find the mother, she’s already in a world of trouble.”
By the time he was off the phone, he felt dazed. Beast’s contacts told him pretty much the same thing. Orlando had no choice but to make the call. Then he sat and waited. His heart was already telling him this baby was his. The whole time he sat there holding the baby he felt numb.
What Slater had said was no exaggeration. The police arrived first, followed by the paramedics who’d be transporting his son to the hospital where they said he’d be thoroughly checked out. The social workers were going straight to the hospital. But even more surprising was he was asked to come into headquarters for questioning. The idea that he might be a suspect in the case of this kid’s missing mother hadn’t even crossed his mind. Just like that, Orlando’s world was turned upside down.
Chapter 2
Danica
It was the right thing to do. Danica knew this. There were no two ways around it. The only other choice she’d had was out of the question. All she could do now was pray Orlando would do the right thing and fight to keep him. As the biological father, he’d be the first choice for guardian of the baby. She knew he wasn’t the fatherly type, knew it was a risk to leave the baby with him, but she couldn’t imagine anyone not falling in love with that beautiful near-toothless smile. Thinking about it only made her sob even more. Danica buried her face in her hands. As much as she wanted to hate Ted for forcing her to do it already, she knew he was right. The only other choice meant losing the baby forever. Of course, she didn’t tell Ted that. Not only would he think her crazy for her farfetched plan of being able to see him again if she at least knew who was raising him, he’d be completely against it. It was still way too soon to know if that part had even worked. But her wretched heart was already begging for her to come up with something else. Seeing him just once in a while from afar was not going to cut it. As insane as it sounded, if Orlando did decide to keep the baby, she was definitely going to have to find a way to get her foot in. It hadn’t even been a whole day since she’d left him at that doorstep, and already she was falling apart. Gathering herself, she got up and walked to the bathroom in the spacious home. She rinsed her face clean only to start crying all over again when she glanced at the bathtub and saw the baby wash. Sitting down on the toilet seat, she snatched a towel off the rack and wiped her face. How in the world would she ever get through this?
Twice that morning she’d nearly just kept driving. Thoughts of packing her stuff too, running away with baby Orlando and never looking back, had plagued her for weeks. But in the end, she always came back to the same conclusion. She wouldn’t get far, and eventually she’d be worse off than where she was right now. At least now she was just without him and miserable but not locked up. Knowing where he was, was the only thing that keeping her from completely spiraling into a deep depression. When she’d tried to buy more time with the baby, saying she was afraid of getting in trouble for not taking him to his dad