Chapter Nine #2
“My wife and I would like a minute of your time.” Nick sent Sam in ahead of him and closed the door behind them.
Sam would’ve left the door open so people could hear what they had to say to Kayla, but Nick was always the classier of the two of them.
“I… I’ve been meaning to reach out to you about the press briefing last week.”
“That’s why we’re here. We’d like to introduce you to our children.” Nick pulled the kids’ recent school photos from his suit coat pocket and placed them on Kayla’s desk.
Sam loved that he’d come prepared. Of course he had.
He was nothing if not thorough in everything he did.
She decided to sit back and allow him to speak for both of them, because he’d get it right, when she’d be tempted to rip the woman’s head off and then stab her with a rusty steak knife to make sure she was really dead.
“This is Scotty. He’s thirteen. His biological mother and grandfather died months apart when he was very young, leaving him a ward of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
I met him two years ago at a state home in Richmond when I was a senator.
Our bond was immediate. Sam and I made him part of our lives and later adopted him.
He’s since become the center of our world and the best part of both of us.
The only regret we have where he’s concerned is that we didn’t meet him sooner, because we love him so much.
“This adorable young man is Alden, and this is his equally adorable twin sister, Aubrey. They recently came into our lives when my wife met them during the investigation into a home invasion in which their beloved parents were tortured and murdered. Alden witnessed some of the horror his parents endured. When they needed a place to stay after that nightmare, we happily provided them a home that’s since become permanent, as their older brother and legal guardian is in college and not able to care for them.
Nothing has made us happier than to fill that role for them and to help all three of them through the traumatic loss of their parents and home.
” He added a photo of Elijah with the twins, taken during a recent weekend visit.
Kayla stared at the photos with big, haunted brown eyes that shimmered with unshed tears that made Sam want to throat-punch her. The emotional reaction was a little too late.
“Every night, Alden and Aubrey play chase with Scotty until he eventually lets them catch him. Their screaming laughter and happy smiles are the best part of our day. Scotty loves baseball and sports and spaghetti more than anything, but he’s an incredible big brother.
Aubrey can sing—in Italian—so beautifully, it’d make you weep.
Alden is fiercely protective of his sister and always lets her pick their bedtime story.
They’re going to be six soon, but he’s already somehow more of a man than many of the actual men I’ve known in my life.
Their older brother, Elijah, is in college at Princeton and plans to move home to DC after he graduates so he can live close to his siblings and see them all the time.
They worship him, the last remaining tie to the family they once knew.
“These are our own children, Ms. Owen. They’re as real to us as any children can be, and when our son comes home from the hellscape known as eighth grade and asks us what it means to be a child of our own, that breaks something in us, because that tells us the kids at school have weaponized those words against an innocent boy who’s already had more than enough pain in his young life.
He recently lost his beloved adoptive grandfather.
His father is the vice president and his mother a decorated homicide detective.
The poor kid is surrounded at school and everywhere else by Secret Service.
He has enough to deal with without a reporter blindsiding his mother with such an ugly question. ”
Tears spilled down her cheeks. “I… I’m so sorry.”
Sam rolled her eyes. “Now you’re sorry. When I gave you the opportunity to rephrase the question, you dug in deeper.”
“I didn’t mean to…”
“We know you have a job to do, Ms. Owen,” Nick said, “and we appreciate that your job can be difficult. However, we encourage you to work from a place of common decency and an understanding that words matter. You’ll go further in your career if you begin there. That’s all we wanted to say.”
Sam had more she’d like to say, but she bit her tongue and let him nudge her toward the door. He was the only person alive who could nudge her in any direction he wanted her to go.
“Wait.”
They stopped and turned to the reporter.
She looked frazzled and undone. Good. Sam hoped she’d never forget this.
“That’s why I’ve wanted to reach out to you, to sincerely apologize for my thoughtless question. I’ve been very well schooled over the last week about adoption and what’s appropriate and inappropriate, and I’m… I’m sorry.”
“We accept your apology,” Nick said. “And we’ll hope you’ll do better in the future.”
“I will. I promise. In fact, if you’d like to sit for a quick interview while you’re here, we could talk about what happened and what’s been learned from it, by me and others.”
Sam had to give her credit for thinking fast on her feet. She glanced at Nick to gauge his interest in an interview.
“I wouldn’t be opposed to that,” he said.
“Really?” Kayla was nearly breathless with excitement.
“Yes,” he said, “but only because I believe your apology was sincere. Otherwise, we wouldn’t even consider it.”
“It’s completely sincere. It breaks my heart to hear about kids harassing your son because of my ignorant question.”
When he looked her way again, Sam shrugged, as if she had all the time in the world to be interviewed. She could take another few minutes, because she’d get to spend those minutes with him.
“In that case,” Nick said, “we’d be happy to do a quick interview about adoption, the proper way to speak of and about adopted kids and how important it is for people who have room in their homes and hearts to step up for kids who need loving families.”
“Give me five minutes, and we’ll make that happen.”