All Chapters of The Replaced Mother: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

When Helen Foster came out of the kitchen, I was still holding her phone. One look at the screen was enough to drain the color from her face."Winnie, were you going through my phone?"I swallowed my anger. "Who was Yale calling Mom?"She reached for the phone instead of answering. "He's a little kid. He doesn't know what he's saying. Don't let it get to you.""What about the three hundred twenty-seven photos? Did those just happen too?"She had nothing to say to that.For a long moment, she sat there in silence before finally sighing. "It really did start because of Yale. Three years ago, you went to pick him up, and he cried so hard he threw up. Yara studied child psychology, and she said it was school-pickup anxiety. She thought we needed to intervene before it got worse.""So you decided Yara Xavier was a better choice than his own mother?"Helen took my hand, her voice turning gentle. "You carried Yale for nine months and gave birth to him. No one could ever take your place."Then

I drove straight to the children's hospital, where a doctor pulled up Yale's screening report from three years earlier."He was never diagnosed with school-pickup anxiety."I frowned. "Then why did he throw up every time he saw me?"The doctor looked back at the report. "What happened the first time he cried like that?""His father told me to go home.""And after that?""Whenever he cried, I left."That made him frown. "Then that's what Yale learned. Crying makes Mom disappear."I tightened my grip on the report.For three years, Yates had told me sending me away was part of the treatment.Before I could dwell on that, my phone buzzed with an email from HR at the Santara headquarters. [Ms. Lawson, the three-year overseas assignment you declined three months ago is still available. If you've changed your mind, please confirm by noon this Friday.]I'd barely hesitated before turning it down three months ago. Yale was about to graduate, and after missing so much already, I hadn't wanted

The confirmation flashed across my screen while Yates was still holding my wrist."Winnie, let me explain."I pulled my hand free in disgust. "We can talk at home."On the drive back, Yates still let Yara ride with us. Yale sat in the back seat clutching her award, refusing to look at me the entire way.Just as we reached the house, he suddenly asked, "Can Mommy Yara still pick me up after this?"Yates hesitated. "We'll talk about it later."Yale immediately turned on me."It's because of Winnie Lawson again. Everything changed as soon as she showed up."I looked at him. "Yale, do you really think I don't love you?""Yes."There wasn't a second of hesitation."Other moms pick their kids up from school. They go to field day. They answer the teachers' messages. You just sit around at home doing nothing. You don't care about Dad or me, and now you're suddenly pretending you do."Yates's expression hardened. "Yale Foster, that's enough."Yale's eyes turned red as he climbed out of the car.

There were sixty-seven tasks in the program, each worth one star when Yale completed it.[When Mom comes to preschool, be brave and tell her you don't need her.][When Mom signs up for a family activity, choose Mommy Yara instead.][Before school lets out, make sure Mom is waiting at home. Don't let her come to the school gates.]As I went through the history, the pattern became impossible to miss. Forty-six of the tasks matched the family activities I'd signed up for and later been removed from. The other twenty-one matched the times my requests to pick Yale up had been denied.The newest task had been completed today.[Protect Mommy Yara's family seat.]A gold star glowed beside the completed status.Created by: Yates FosterCo-editor: Yara XavierYates's voice tightened. "It didn't start out like this. I just wanted him to talk about how he felt every day, then use rewards to help him adjust to school pickup."I opened the edit history.The program had originally been called [Yale's

During my first month in Santara, I moved into a new place and changed my phone number.Once a week, Yates sent Yale's therapy updates through our lawyers.At his first counseling session, Yale refused to go inside. At the second, he tore every star sticker off the walls of the therapist's office. By the third, he finally admitted why he'd spent so long pushing me away."I was scared Mommy Yara wouldn't like me anymore if I didn't."The psychologist's report read:[Yale has developed a clear pattern of making choices to please others. All primary caregivers should participate in family intervention.]Yates attended every session he was required to.Yara showed up only for the initial evaluation.The preschool's final investigation found that she had repeatedly presented herself as Yale's mother and had participated in altering his records. Her access to the parent portal and pickup privileges was permanently revoked, while Yates was ordered to complete parenting education for improperl