Chapter 2: The Family I Chose

The legal process took years. Robert was reported missing, the courts eventually terminated his parental rights on the grounds of abandonment, and I adopted every one of his ten children.

My parents were furious. They believed I had sacrificed my future and refused to help financially. I worked long days, stretched every dollar, repaired secondhand clothes, and learned how to make one casserole feed a crowded table.

Dating became nearly impossible. Men who seemed interested usually disappeared as soon as they learned how many children called me Mom. Eventually, I stopped measuring my happiness by whether another man chose me.

Those children became my world.

Thirty years passed. They grew into adults with careers, spouses, children, and lives of their own. Yet every weekend, they still returned to my house for a meal around the same scarred dining table.

Last Sunday, while everyone was gathered, someone knocked. A gray-haired stranger stood on my porch holding a cream-colored envelope.

“Mrs. Mercer, I was Robert’s attorney,” he said. “He asked me to give you this after his death. It was his final wish.” Then he walked away before I could form a question. Continue Reading ⬇️