March 27, 1970
Long Island, New York
"Jasmine Sinclaire, I will not argue with you over this anymore! Give me that damn baby!"
"No papa! I want to keep her! She's mine!", the teenage girl cried in the backseat of the car as she held on tightly to her newborn baby girl who was barely hours old.
It was an unusually cold and rainy night in Long Island as the Hickey family sat in front of the Long Island Home for Orphaned Children.
"You cannot keep that thing. Now hand it over!", the girls father said in disgust as he yelled at her.
Jasmine only held on tighter to her blonde-haired baby who was wrapped tightly in a hospital blanket.
She didn't mean to get pregnant and give birth at sixteen years old. She only had sex just one time before finding out she was pregnant.
Thinking that she was in love, Jazmine had given her virginity to her crush who was also the most popular boy at her school. All of the girls wanted him.
His name was Marcus Carey and he had swooned Jazmine into thinking that he liked her back so that he could get into her panties and eventually left her hanging once she told him she was pregnant with his child.
Feeling helpless and scared, Jazmine hid her pregnancy for the entire nine months from wearing oversized shirts, hoodies, coats, and because her small frame hid her baby bump well.
Now here she was being forced to give up her child because of the way she looked when she came into the world. With Jasmine being black with some latino roots and Marcus being white, the baby girl was visibly biracial.
"Jazmine Sinclaire Hickey! Give me that damn mulatto baby before I lay hands on you! I'm not gonna sit in front of this damn orphanage all night. Me and your mother have to work in the morning!", he yelled, interrupting Jazmine from her thoughts.
"How dare you call her that! She is your grandchild! Mama please tell Daddy that I'm capable of taking care of her. I'll get a job and do anything that I have to just so I can keep her", Jazmine pleaded, but her mother remained silent, still in disbelief that her only daughter decided to make a stupid decision at such a young age.
"That is not my grandchild. No grandchild of mine will have white blood in them. That baby has been tainted with the devil's flesh. You slept with the enemy and now you will pay for it. Your lying and promiscuity shows that you can no longer be trusted. You're a white man's whore", Jasmine's father said in a dark tone before he finally snatched the baby from her arms causing the newborn to start crying.
"No papa! Let me keep my baby! I want to keep her!", Jazmine screamed as she watched her father get out the car with her baby.
She tried to open her door but he had already locked it including the rest of the doors.
She continued to scream and cry as she watched her father open the trunk of the car and pull out a picnic basket.
He put the baby inside, walked up to the doorstep of the orphange, and sat the basket right at the front door before returning to the car.
Jasmine rolled down the window and tried to climb out of it just so she could get to her baby but her father dragged her back into the car.
"You will never see that mistake again!", her father yelled as he threw his daughter back into the back seat and slammed the door.
"I want my baby! I want my baby!", Jazmine screamed repeatedly as her father turned on the car and sped down the dimly lit street, finding the nearest interstate that lead back to Upstate New York.
"I don't wanna hear it! Me and your mother worked hard to give you a decent life. We have put you in the finest schools, dance classes, and modeling agencies, and have given you everything you've ever wanted and this is what we get in return? We expected better out of you Jazmine!", her father yelled loudly.
"You're not going back to that school. From now on, you will be tutored at home since you want to be fast and can't keep your damn legs closed at school. Instead of opening your legs, you will be opening a damn textbook", Jasmine's mother finally spoke after being silent through the whole ordeal.
"I'm sorry. I just want my baby", Jazmine weeped, tears running like a river down her face as she slid down into the seat of the car.
She knew had made a mistake by getting pregnant but she wanted to make it right and take care of her child since she made the dumb decision to have sex.
Her parents would never let her see or hear from her baby again, no matter how hard she tried find her. The little girl that she carried and hid for nine months was now gone from her life forever....
💔💔💔
Meanwhile, the newborn baby girl cried relentlessly as the rain poured faster and the freezing cold wind blew harder, only a flimsy picnic basket and a thin hospital blanket shielded her from the harsh elements.
Outside was no place for a baby in these conditions, let alone a newborn but no one knew she was there. Her whimpers and cries were drowned out by the rain and wind.
Hours had gone by before she was finally heard by one of the women that worked at the orphanage.
"Oh my!", a slender, middle-aged darkskinned woman said as she looked down and saw the shivering and soaking wet newborn on the doorstep.
She immediately kneeled down and picked up the traumatized and crying baby girl.
"Shhh it's okay. You're safe now sweetie. I wonder how long you've been out here, you're soaking wet from the rain", the woman said as she stood with the newborn in one arm and the picnic basket in the other.
"Addison aren't you supposed to be tending to the older children right now?", a stout, caucasian women said rudely.
"Yes ma'am but someone left this baby on the doorstep and-"
"Give me the baby and go do your job", the women shot back.
Addison cursed under her breath as she handed the baby to the woman and went to go check on the older children.
"Hey little one", the woman said sweetly as she pulled the small blanket back to get a closer look the tiny newborn.
Her facial expression immediately changed once she got a clear view of the baby's face.
"Something's not right about you and I'm going to figure it out right now", she said as she stomped upstairs.
She walked right into the large nursery that resided the other infants and laid the baby on a changing table.
The woman unraveled the hospital blanket that the baby was wrapped in and out fell the birth certificate.
"Just what I needed", she said as she hastily opened it and began to read it.
What she saw made her look at the baby in disgust.
"Addison! Get down here right now!", the woman yelled.
After a few minutes, she walked in, confused as to why she was being yelled at now.
"Yes ma'am", Addison said annoyed.
"You're gonna be in charge of this from now", she said as she pointed at the newborn. "It says on her birth certificate that she's part black and refuse to take care of a nigg-"
"Don't you dare say it! I've done took a lot of things from you but I WILL NOT let you disrespect me or that baby!", Addison yelled, she was fed up.
Even though year was 1970, racism and hatred was still strife in Long Island.
"Don't end up without a job", the woman shot back.
"Oh go to hell Barbara", Addison said as she pushed the large woman out the way.
She soon left the room leaving Addison in the nursery with the babies.
"Hey sweetheart", she said as looked down at the frail newborn, causing her to frown. "You're a skinny little girl. I'm gonna have to put some meat on your bones. You're gonna be my little chunk chunk by the time I get finished with you."
The baby looked at her, tired, weary, and recouping from the traumatic night spent outside in the rain.
"I wonder what your name is babygirl. Let's see", Addison said as she looked at the baby's birth certificate.
"Mariah....that's a pretty name for a pretty girl. I promise to take care of you okay? Those white heifers might not like you but I love you already", she smiled.
"It's just you and me...."