19. Tessa #2
“That the state has a placement obligation and my employer, Sunshine State Family Connections, is a licensed child-placing agency that must comply with and report to the Florida Department of Children and Families. Olive cannot remain with your friends indefinitely, and the clock is ticking.”
“Toward what?” Dusty asked.
“We must establish an approved residence for her—”
“We’re in one!” Tessa insisted.
Lynda sighed, fully out of tolerance now. “An approved residence is one that you own or have rented for one full year.”
“Or what?”
The other woman shifted from one foot to the other, hesitating just enough for Tessa’s blood to run cold.
“She’ll be moved to a temporary foster placement. Technically, you have seventy-two hours, sixteen of which are gone, but I would be willing—”
“Did you say foster care?” Tessa leaned into Dusty because her knees felt like they were about to give out. “Like…with strangers?”
“With a licensed foster family that we have vetted and approved. In fact, I have a family home now about an hour and a half away in Milton, Florida.”
Dusty’s whole body tensed. “Lynda, that is not necessary. We can figure this out.”
She gave him a dubious look. “They’re a lovely couple who have fostered for ten years. The wife is a pediatric nurse and the husband—”
“No.” Tessa put her hand over her mouth. “An hour and a half? Milton? I’ve never even heard of it.”
Dusty put his arm around her, but even his touch couldn’t calm her.
Lynda looked like she was over the smell, the heat, and Tessa. Not in that order.
“They are the kind of people I would want for any child in my caseload.” She ground out the words. “If I had to place a child today, I would place her there.”
But she didn’t have a child to place. This was Olive, and she belonged with them. “How long will they have her?” Tessa asked.
“As long as it takes to either restore your home or establish a new approved residence, so six to twelve months. Six if you repair your house in record time and pass approval, or twelve if you rent something today—which won’t be easy, I’m sure you know—and have your name on the lease for a year.”
Which was…unimaginable.
“Away from Olive for…a year?” Tears spilled and Tessa didn’t care, not one bit.
“You can visit her,” she said calmly. “Assuming it fits with the foster family’s schedule and plans.”
Tessa pressed her fingers to her lips and looked to the ground, holding in a scream.
“Unless, of course,” Lynda added softly, “she gets adopted.”
Her head shot up. “What?”
“She will be in the system for adoption,” Lynda said, as calmly as if she were predicting the weather.
“Either by her foster family or another family, per the state rule. If Morgan’s situation does not stabilize, and if you and Dusty cannot present an approved residence, there’s no reason to make her wait—”
“That can’t be right,” Dusty said, doing only a slightly better job than Tessa at holding his emotions in check.
“We’ve filed all the paperwork. We’ve met with attorneys, with you, and we’ve followed every rule, up to and including getting married in a civil ceremony over a month ago to meet your requirements. ”
“That was Morgan’s request, not the state.”
“Either way,” he said. “Someone else can’t just adopt her.”
“Morgan has signed the papers and Olive can be adopted. While there’s no guarantee she’d get selected, if a—”
“Are you out of your mind?” Tessa barked, no longer caring about being polite or passing a test or complying with anything.
This woman was a monster and Tessa was at war.
“Olive will be adopted the minute someone lays eyes on her. Or this…Milton family meets her. She’s perfect and young and dear and…
and…” She choked a sob. “She’s going to be our daughter. ”
“Tessa, I know what you’ve done for that little girl,” Lynda said. “But the statute protects her and gives her a chance to find a family and stable residence, which you don’t have right now.”
“What about Morgan?” Dusty asked. “Surely, she has a say in this. She wants us to adopt Olive. She was clear about that.”
“But she signed a paper stating the entire process would follow the state rules and that’s the only way a judge will agree and…” She gave a sad look at the house. “This home does not meet our standards.”
Tessa leaned over, gut-punched and finished with this conversation.
The girl who called her Tess-Tess was going to live in a house in Milton, Florida, and would call someone else Mama. And then she’d be adopted and gone forever.
Lynda closed the folio. She tucked it under her arm.
“Look, because of the arguably mitigating circumstances of a hurricane and your mother’s accident, I can extend the seventy-two hours to one week.”
“What day, exactly?” Dusty asked.
“Today is Sunday, so we need Olive returned to an approved location next Monday at eight a.m., not one minute later. And I need daily telephone contact, including two video calls, at least three in-person meetings with the child at the home where she’s staying, and confirmation next Sunday at five p.m. that she will be returned or you will be arrested and Olive removed by law enforcement. ”
Blood drained from Tessa’s head, leaving her dizzy and weak.
“And if we buy a house this week?” Dusty asked. “Will that qualify?”
“Depends on the financial situation, insurance, and if it meets our standards.” She looked apologetic. “It won’t be easy after a hurricane. And…I’m sorry. I better go now.”
Tessa couldn’t muster a goodbye. The woman had just torn her heart out, stomped on it, and set a deadline to cut it in two. She stood stone still while Dusty walked Lynda to her car, said something quietly, then came back to put his arms around her while the sedan pulled out.
“Tess. Look at me.”
She looked at him.
“We are going to figure this out.”
“How?”
“I don’t know yet. But we are.”
She dropped her head against his chest. “My mother. My little girl.” She gave in to a sob that wrenched her whole body. “I cannot lose either of them and I’m going to lose both.”
“I know and we are in this together every step of the way, however it goes.”
Of course he couldn’t assure her they’d find a house in a week or that Olive wouldn’t be adopted or make any of the empty promises some men might make. She loved him for that, although any promise, empty or not, might have helped her broken heart.
So she just held him and cried.