My Daughter and Her Fiancé Left Me His 6-Month-Old Baby—Then They Disappeared
When my daughter returned after being gone for five years, she brought her fiancé — and his 6-month-old baby. I had barely wrapped my head around the bizarre visit when I woke to find them both gone. Just a note beside the crib: “Sorry.” But that was only the beginning of the nightmare.
I hadn’t seen my daughter in five years. Five years of stilted phone calls, and wondering why Elena had pulled away so completely after college.
I’d raised her alone — just us against the world — and somehow, somewhere along the way, I’d lost her. The distance between us was greater than the miles between my city and hers.
When she called to say she was coming to visit, I nearly dropped the phone.
“Darren and I are getting married and he wants to meet you,” she said.
Darren, the man she’d started dating two months previously.
Alarm bells rang in my head, but I said nothing. I didn’t want to risk getting into an argument that might make her change her mind about coming.
I spent three days cleaning every corner of my modest two-bedroom house.
The morning of their arrival, I woke at five to start the chicken pot pie — Elena’s favorite since she was seven.
When the doorbell rang, my heart leaped into my throat. I opened the door and gasped in shock.
Elena stood there, but she wasn’t holding flowers or a suitcase. She was holding a baby.
Behind Elena stood a man — Darren, I presumed. He had a diaper bag slung over one shoulder, and his smile looked as strained as I imagined mine did.
My mouth opened, but no sound came out. My hands trembled slightly as I reached for the baby out of pure instinct.
“Whose…” I finally whispered.