the right direction. As for her being able to see that she was unfit to care for Athena? I gave her high marks for that as well.
“Are you still using?” I asked.
“What business is that of yours?” she snapped, shooting a withering glance in my direction.
It was far more of my business than she knew, but I stuck to the issue at hand.
“If you do sign off, I don’t want you to come back later and say you were under the influence at the time, claiming, as a consequence, that the agreement isn’t legally binding.”
“I said I’ll sign, and I will,” Naomi insisted, “and don’t worry. I’m not going to change my mind.”
“The problem is, your signature will solve only part of Athena’s problem,” I told her. “Athena’s father will have to sign off as well.”
“I don’t know who the father is,” she declared with a dismissive shrug. “I slept around. It could have been any number of guys.”
“What if it’s Petey Mayfield?” I asked.
I was seated next to her. At the mention of Petey’s name, it looked as though a bolt of electricity had shot through her body. A sudden flush spread upward from her neck to her cheeks. There was an involuntary tightening in her jawline, but she said nothing.
“You were living with Petey,” I prodded. “It stands to reason that the baby is his.”
“Petey isn’t Athena’s father,” Naomi insisted. “He just isn’t.”
“What if I can prove he is?” I inquired. “What if a DNA profile of Agnes Mayfield reveals a familial connection? In that case, regardless of what you claimed on the birth certificate, once Petey’s paternity is legally established, he, too, will be required to sign his own relinquishment.”
“That’s not fair!” Naomi snapped, suddenly slamming the palm of her hand on Rachel’s desk with such ferocity that the blow sent stacks of neatly organized papers skittering in every direction. Her response was so intense that everyone else in the room jumped, Lucy included.
“Petey left us, damn it!” Naomi exclaimed, spitting out the words. “Don’t you understand? He abandoned us! He took off, walked out the door, left me there alone, and never looked back! He didn’t give a damn about either one of us. Why the hell should he have any say in what happens to Athena? Why should he?”
This was the first time Naomi had exhibited any kind of emotion. Once that initial explosion of fury dissipated, however, it devolved into a series of gut-wrenching sobs. Witnessing Naomi’s obvious heartbreak, I was at a loss as to what, if any, my response should be. Reverend Seymour solved the problem for both of us by getting to her feet, coming around the desk, standing on her tiptoes, and wrapping Naomi in a comforting embrace.
“There, there,” she crooned softly. “It’s all right. You’ll be okay.”
But now I understood. Petey had deserted them. Suddenly everything that had happened—everything Naomi had done, including abandoning Athena—made more sense.
Eventually Naomi’s sobs subsided into ragged shudders. “Take a breath,” Rachel advised, stepping away and handing Naomi a handful of tissues from a box on her desk. “I’ll go get you a bottle of water.”
Naomi nodded. “Thank you,” she murmured.
Rachel left the room, leaving the two of us—three counting Lucy—alone.
“How long ago did Petey leave?” I asked.
“How do you know that’s his name?”
“I talked to Mrs. Tanner,” I answered, “your former neighbor.”
“That nosy old lady from across the street?”
“Yes,” I said, “that’s the one. She saw you walking away with your loaded grocery cart just before Christmas. She was worried about what had happened to you and the baby.”
“I managed,” Naomi said, regaining a smidgeon of her tough-nut attitude. “We managed,” she corrected.
“You still haven’t answered my question,” I pressed. “When did he leave?”
She shrugged. “Sometime last fall.”
“Do you remember the day?”
“Of course I remember!” she replied in sudden exasperation. “It was the day before Halloween. We thought we might have trick-or-treaters show up. Petey went to the store to get some candy in case they did. He came home all excited, brimming over with some weird crap about seeing a sign that meant he and I were going to be rich. Sure, likely story. Grandma Day is one of those people who reads her horoscope without fail and believes in signs and all that other magical nonsense. I’ve never believed any of it.
“So when Petey told me that, he was so wound up I actually thought he was tripping out and seeing things that weren’t there. I even asked him if he