Chapter 1
My sister got pregnant out of wedlock, delivered a baby boy at some sketchy clinic, then vanished into thin air.
The doctor tracked down our house using the address she’d left behind and dumped the kid on me.
Mom and Dad literally got on their knees, begging me to take him in.
So there I was-a single woman in her twenties, stuck raising someone else’s baby.
I busted my ass for years getting that kid through childhood.
Then boom-my sister waltzes back into the picture with some flashy businessman dripping in gold chains.
She scooped up the boy, tears streaming down her face, spinning this sob story about how I was jealous of her and had stolen her child, tearing them apart.
Without missing a beat, the kid cut all ties with me and ran straight into her arms. Mom and Dad threw me out on the street. The whole neighborhood turned against me.
When I couldn’t take another second of it, I jumped off a building.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day my sister gave birth.
The sun wasn’t even up when someone started banging the hell outta our door. I shot up in bed, totally drenched in sweat.
This was déjà vu all over again-that clinic doc making a whole ass scene, waking up half the damn neighborhood.
He’d literally shoved the baby right into my arms in front of everyone, going off about how I was some deadbeat mom who litched her own kid.
Turns out it was my sister’s baby. Whoops.
Mom and Dad were all like “just keep him, you’re not getting married anyway,” so I caved like an idiot.
God, what a shit show that turned out to be.
Now I’m hearing those same sounds again.
I jumped up and ripped the door open-same damn face staring back at me.
“Mia Hartley, you had a baby and bailed on him. You know that’s like, super illegal, right?”
All the neighbors were already rubbernecking, trying to catch the tea.
I stared at this dude for a hot second, then yanked off my slipper and went full beast mode on his face!
“You lying piece of trash! Nice try with your little scam!”
“I don’t even have a freaking boyfriend, let alone a baby! You ever see a woman who just gave birth throw down like this?”
“Do I look like I just squeezed out a kid to you, genius?”
My surprise attack left this doc totally shook.
That’s when my neighbor Mrs. Rodriguez snapped outta her trance.
“Yeah, Mia’s at work every damn day. We ain’t never seen her with a belly!”
“This has gotta be some kinda mix-up, right?”
“Wait, I know this guy-he’s from that sketchy clinic down the block!”
I put my hands on my hips and let him have it: “You shameless old creep! Running your nasty clinic and now trying to pull this BS on me? Someone call the cops!”
The second I said police, this guy went white as a sheet. “L-look, I’m not gonna argue with you about this!”
I grabbed a handful of his hair. “Oh, you’re not gonna argue? Well tough shit, ’cause you’re not walking away either!”
Whipped out my phone and hit 911: “Yeah hi, we got someone trafficking babies over here!”
“Don’t you dare make stuff up!”
“When the cops roll up, you better start singing. Or I’m gonna wreck your whole damn clinic!”
God gave me a do-over, and I was letting every bit of rage from my past life rip.
By the time the police showed, the doc was holding this baby with his face all beat up, while I’m standing there in my PJs, still gripping my trusty weapon slipper, mad as hell.
After the neighbors spilled the tea, the cops looked at the baby he’s holding-
Definitely fresh outta the oven. Still had all the gross newborn stuff going on.
“What’s happening here?”
“The patient wrote down this address and name!”
The doc’s fumbling around his pockets and pulls out some medical papers.
The officer checks it out-yep, our address and my name right there on the paperwork.
I crossed my arms: “I got zero clue who used my name to pop out a baby and make me the patsy!”
Right then Mom and Dad finally rolled up.
“Mia, sweetie, you’re not gonna get married anyway. Why don’t you just take him in?”
“Mom, what kinda crazy talk is that? I can’t just randomly adopt some random kid!”
“Who knows what his parents are on-could be total crackheads. That trashy DNA runs in the family tree. I ain’t raising some messed up kid!”
Mom and Dad just stood there with their mouths hanging open.
Chapter 1
The doc’s face went dark and he straight up shoved the baby into my arms.
“This is YOUR family’s kid. I’m done with this circus. Tell Sophia her son’s her damn problem. If I knew your family was this nuts, I never would’ve showed up!”
Suddenly everyone’s talking at once-now they all knew it was my sister Sophia’s baby!
