One million dollars -- a dream come true for struggling college student Ashlynn Morgan. All she has to do is sign on the dotted line and agree to become surrogate mother for CEO multi billionaire Felix Dunnerson and his wife Deborah.
Yet, during th...
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Still reeling from Felix's revelation, I retake my seat in the courtroom. He must have given me false information—it has to be. No way my aunt would ever steal from me. And gambling away that kind of money? Surely, I would've noticed something.
Gnawing pangs keep twisting my stomach. The few renovations she did to the house—all those code updates to Pap's building—the cash had to have come from somewhere. My aunt's book sales rarely amount to a thousand bucks a month. Then all those weekends she left me alone with her friend Maggie. How could she have even afforded these trips? It would've been easy to hit the casinos during those times. There are tons of them right across the Niagara Falls border in Canada.
Shuffling drifts from the judge's bench as Delarosa settles back into his chair and forces me to refocus on the hearing. Felix's lawyer strolls to the podium.
"Petitioner calls Dr. James Stokes."
That's the doctor I saw in Vermont. When Joshua and I reviewed the witness list, we couldn't figure out how Dr. Stokes's testimony might be relevant to this case. No one disputes that Paddy was born prematurely.
"Dr. Stokes, could you tell the court how you know the respondent, Ashlynn Morgan?"
"She saw me in my practice in Vermont for a pregnancy checkup."
"And when was that?"
"On April 13th this year."
"And the child Quentin, who is part of these proceedings, was born later that day?"
"I wouldn't know. Ms. Morgan didn't tell the clinic that I'm her physician, so they didn't contact me, and Ms. Morgan failed to cancel her subsequent appointment with me."
I grimace. Calling his office had totally slipped my mind.
"And Dr. Stokes, what was your assessment of Ms. Morgan's condition during her appointment?"
"Her weight wasn't where it should've been and she suffered from high blood pressure. Since it was her first appointment and I hadn't monitored the situation before, I couldn't tell if this was an issue or just a one-time occurrence. That's when I advised her that she had to monitor her blood pressure closely and return to my office if it stayed up."
"Did Ms. Morgan seem worried?"
"No, not at all, which lead me further to believe that it might've been an isolated incident. Many patients are nervous when they meet a new gynecologist, especially if it's a man when they are used to a female doctor."
"And when did Ms. Morgan say was her last appointment with her old ob-gyn?"
"At twenty-two weeks."
"In your professional opinion, is it common for patients not to see their doctor for long periods of time during the final trimester?"
He shakes his head. "That's not common at all. Most patients attend monthly checkups, and I did tell Ms. Morgan that she should've made an appointment much sooner with me."
