Chapter Forty-One
Oakley
The social worker was clearly overwhelmed by my dad.
I couldn’t blame her. He looked grumpy and mean and was the king of the Sedoba Territory. Who wouldn’t be overwhelmed by that?
But finally, she got him to sign a bunch of stuff, and my dad was suddenly in charge of about seventeen children, including Isidore, Reef, and the youngest, a two-year-old dragon named Blossom.
Since the blood witches were taken down, Isidore hadn’t put Blossom down or let Reef move more than a foot away from her.
Dad came over to me, saying, “We’re taking all the kids with us to Sedoba where we can put them with foster families until we… figure out if their parents were involved in this mess.”
“What’ll happen to the ones that don’t have any parents?” I asked quietly, my eyes not leaving Coral’s siblings, my heart in my throat.
“We’ll find them families, okay?”
“All of them?”
Dad glanced at the kids I was staring at. “I promise, Tan and I will take good care of them, Oak.”
“I know you guys will, that’s why I asked you.
” I glanced at him and took a breath. “I know a lot of the kids, actually, from when I… well, you know. But… but Isidore and Reef, they… they’re my best friend’s little siblings.
Coral died a long time ago, but I’ve always…
” I shook my head and swallowed, meeting his gaze.
“I tried to find them after… after I came to live with you, but they were gone. The whole cult was missing, and I couldn’t…
” I trailed off, and I knew my eyes were getting watery.
“I wanted to save them, and I couldn’t.”
Before I could start bawling, Roman came over and wrapped an arm around me, holding me against his side as he kissed my hair. In my head, I heard, “I’ve got you, babydoll. You’re okay, and so are they. None of this is your fault.”
“I… I know it isn’t.” Didn’t stop the guilt, though.
Dad surprised me by cupping my cheeks so I’d look him in the eye again.
“This isn’t your fault, kiddo. None of it is.
” He searched my eyes for a long moment before nodding.
“Tan and I will care for them like they’re our own, alright?
And since you’ll be home at the tower, you can come visit all the time. Right?”
I sucked in a breath. “I… yeah… yeah, of course.”
He smiled and kissed my forehead. “Good. This is perfect timing, honestly.”
“What do you mean?”
His gaze softened. “Tan and I have been talking about adopting. You just gave us a reason to jump in feet first.”
He seemed… really happy about this, which eased some of my guilt. Part of me felt like I should be the one to take the kids in, but honestly, I knew my dads would be so much better for them.
I was still figuring my own shit out, and Roman and I had only just become a couple. Bringing kids into the picture right now would’ve been difficult, and the last thing those kids needed was difficult.
When I glanced back, I saw Daddo already talking to Isidore, Reef, and Blossom, and my eyes watered. I had amazing parents, and I had a feeling my dads were gonna fall in love with those kids.
They were saying foster right now, but maybe… maybe adoption would be brought to the table soon.
Dad: Can you and Rome come up for lunch today?
It’d been three weeks since we’d taken down the trafficking ring, and Roman and I had been busier than ever.
Most of the victims were brought here to the tower and given condos to share with a few other victims—there were far too many people for everyone to get their own.
But we’d made sure everyone had a real bed, clean clothes, food, and other amenities to stay safe, clean, and healthy.
We had a whole team of therapists as well, which was very helpful and necessary.
Since then, we’d been processing everyone, gathering information, and when it was safe, we helped get these people back to their homes, if that was what they chose to do.
Unfortunately, there were way more cases than I expected where their families either sold them for money or traded them to pay off a debt. It was… horrific, but we were doing what we could for everyone.
In those cases, we were planning on letting them live in the tower for however long they wanted or helping to set them up somewhere else. We wanted these people to be truly free and make their own decisions, but we also wanted to make sure they were going to be safe wherever they landed.
It’d been a very long week, and Roman and I were taking the day off. Or at least, we were trying to. We’d already helped process two people when we got a phone call bright and early this morning from someone on the recovery team. Apparently, we were never allowed time off.
But it was nearly lunch time, and we were doing what we could to stay away from work for a little while.
I glanced at my viramore. “My dad wants us to come up for lunch. What do you think?”
He shrugged from his spot on the couch. “I’m fine with that.
” Before I could respond, he gestured to the TV and yelled, “Oh, come on! You can’t possibly think that bowl was used for an ancient ritual!
It’s a freakin’ chamber pot!” He looked at me.
“They’re gonna display a chamber pot in a museum instead of that priceless cup they dismissed five minutes ago!
” He looked genuinely angry, and all I could do was grin.
“Why do you even like watching this show? All you do is yell at it.”
Every time we sat down, he put this show on. Clearly, he loved yelling at the archeologists on ParaHist. It was hilarious.
“I don’t like it. I’m only watching it because you are.”
“Uh, if you remember correctly, you’re the one who turned it on and still has control of the remote. I had nothing to do with it.”
He scowled. “I put it on because you like it.”
I laughed. “Liar!”
Before he could argue again, my phone chimed.
Daddo: Do you think you’re coming for lunch? Sorry, just need to know how many sandwiches to make.
Oh, whoops. I never texted Dad back.
I sent the same text to both of them.
Me: We’ll be there.
Half an hour later, we were in my dads’ condo, and before I saw either dad, I had two short blood witches wrapped around my waist and a baby dragon standing back, looking shy.
I gave both Isidore and Reef a big hug, and I was touched when they both hugged Roman too. Then I moved a little closer to Blossom, squatted down, and opened my arms. “Hey there, Blossom. Can I get a hug? It’s okay if you don’t want to.”
She twisted back and forth for a moment, clearly thinking about it before she stepped in and almost fell against me. I hugged her tight and kissed the top of her head, holding her until she pulled away. As soon as she did, she got shy again and ran behind Isidore’s legs.
She was the cutest little thing and was starting to come out of her shell little by little. She had really bonded with Dad, and when she wasn’t attached to Isidore, she followed him around like a little duckling.
He’d even taken to bringing her down to his office on work days. She colored—usually on his lap—while he worked, and it was the cutest thing I’d ever seen.
Daddo and I had snuck a bunch of pictures the other day, and I was planning on framing one for him.
The teens were a little more standoffish, which was understandable, especially since they didn’t think this was a permanent thing.
It was clear to me that they were afraid to get used to living here and having great dads, which made me sad.
But after seeing how much both my dads loved all three kids, I knew they weren’t giving them up. Ever.
I stood, grabbed Rome’s hand, and tugged him into the kitchen where I could hear my dads.
“Hey,” I said, leaning against the door frame.
Roman stood a little behind me and to the side, but he kept his hand on my hip. “Hey, Gar, Tan.”
My dads offered smiles, then came over for quick hugs.
The two of them shared a look before Dad nodded me out of the kitchen and said, “Come with me for a moment.”
Curious, I followed him all the way to his bedroom and was surprised when he shut the door and set the silencing ward so no one else could hear us. What the hell was he doing?
Was something wrong? Was this about a new mission? Were one of the kids sick or hurt or something? They’d seemed fine to me, but I wasn’t a doctor. Could they have—
“I want to ask you something,” Dad said, staring at me with a serious expression.
“Uh, okay. What’s up? Is something wrong? Are the kids okay?”
He smiled a little. “The kids are great.”
“Good… that’s good.” I took a breath. “Okay, then what’s up?”
He took a deep breath as if composing himself.
“Tan and I have been talking, and we… well… we confirmed that Izzy and Reef’s parents are dead and they don’t have any other family, and that Blossom’s parents are also out of the picture.
” He stared at me for a moment. “Kid, we want to know if you’re okay with us adopting Isidore, Reef, and Blossom? ”
My heart soared, and a huge smile crossed my face. “I knew it!”
Dad’s eyebrows jumped up at my exclamation.
“I knew you guys would want to keep them!” I pumped my fist in the air. “Hell yeah. Adopt them! Please! I would love to have three little siblings.”
Dad smiled, a big, rare one this time. “Really? You’re okay with it?”
I laughed and gave him a quick hug. “Yes, Dad. I’m more than okay with it. I seriously love those kids like siblings already.”
He nodded, smiling softly. “You know, Isidore and Reef told me what you did.”
My brow furrowed. “What I did?”
“They said that after their big sister passed away, you were… different.”
I cringed but nodded. “Uh, yeah. I… I, um, kinda pulled away from everyone even more than usual and stuck to myself. I concentrated on training and nothing else, so I, um, well… I didn’t really talk to anyone in the community…
” I shrugged, not really wanting to get into the fact that I hadn’t wanted to get close to anyone else for fear of them being tortured and killed in front of me like Coral was.