I never told my mother-in-law I was a judge. To her, I was just an unemployed gold digger. A few hours after the C-section, she burst into my room with the adoption papers and said mockingly, “You don’t deserve the VIP room. Give one of the twins to my infertile daughter; you can’t handle two anyway.” I hugged the babies and pressed the panic button. When the police arrived, she yelled at me that I was crazy. They were about to arrest me… until the chief recognized me… The recovery room at St. Jude Medical Center was more like a luxury hotel room than a hospital. At my request, the expensive orchids that the District Attorney’s office and the Supreme Court had sent me were hidden away; I needed to maintain the “unemployed wife” image with my in-laws. I had just survived a complicated C-section, given birth to twins Leo and Luna, and seeing them sleeping peacefully, I knew all the pain had been worth it. And then the door burst open. Mrs. Sterling, my mother-in-law, entered the room with a firm stride, exuding a strong scent of expensive perfume and furs. She surveyed the luxurious room with obvious disdain. "VIP room?" she snapped, kicking the leg of my bed so hard I flinched. "My son works himself to the bone so you can spend money on silk pillows and room service? Are you really a useless leech?" She threw the crumpled document onto the table. "Sign this. This is a relinquishment of parental rights. Karen, your sister-in-law, is infertile. She needs a son to continue the family line. Besides, you can't handle two babies." Give Leo to Karen and keep the girl. I froze. "What are you talking about? They're my children!" "Don't be selfish!" she barked, heading for Leo's crib. "I'm taking him now.
