Chapter 56 – Alana
Chapter
Fifty-Six
ALANA
Afew days later, Alejandro and I are sitting in his office at home having just received a call from the adoption agency.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” I ask as the excitement flutters in my stomach.
He nods. “As long as Lucia agrees, obviously.”
“Of course she has to agree.” I nod. “It looks like you might just get your heir after all.”
He reaches for my hand and pulls me up from the chair. “I told you, I don’t need an heir. All I need is you.”
“I know,” I whisper. He has told me that, and I believe him.
He kisses me softly. “Shall we go and speak to her then?”
I take a deep breath. “Yes. Let’s do this.”
Together, we walk through the house to find Lucia eating cereal in the kitchen.
“Hey,” she looks up and smiles at us. “What’s going on? You two look, like, all super serious.”
“Hi, sweetheart,” I say. “We have something we’d like to talk to you about.”
She swallows her cereal and blinks at us. “Okay.” She looks nervous now and I hate that. It makes me feel nervous too. What if this is the stupidest idea ever and she feels like she has to say yes because she lives with us?
I mentally shake the thoughts from my head, trusting she’s strong-willed enough to give us an honest answer.
“We were thinking about what you were saying a couple weeks ago. About wanting to finish high school and go to college one day. You’re such a smart kid, Lucia, and you should be able to do anything you want to with your life. ”
She frowns. “Yeah, but that was just talk. At least for now. It’ll be pretty hard just being a single mom, never mind also going to college.”
“We both understand that. That’s why we spoke with a lady from an adoption agency,” Alejandro says.
“We want you to be able to go to college, Lucia, and do all of those things that you’ve dreamed about.
We want to be the people who help you to do that, pay for college and whatever else you need.
We can have the papers drawn up today if that’s what you want, too.
But, obviously, you’re seventeen-years-old, and you’re more mature than most adults I know. So the choice is all yours.”
“You’d pay for me to go to college?” she asks in disbelief.
“Of course,” I reply. We’ll do that regardless. I don’t know why she’d think otherwise, but I guess life hasn’t exactly taught her to believe in fairy tales.
She blinks at us with tears in her eyes, and then she looks down at her bump, rubbing her hands over it lovingly.
“I know that it would probably be for the best.” She chokes down a sob.
“I mean, you guys have been amazing to me. You could give this baby a much better life than I could. It’s just that…
I’m not sure I could just…give him up, even to you. ”
She starts to sob, and I rush around the breakfast bar and wrap my arm around her shuddering shoulder. “No, Lucia, no…”
“Jesus!” Alejandro says as he runs his hands through his hair in exasperation. “We don’t want to adopt your baby, Lucia.”
Her head wobbles up and she looks between the two of us with tear-filled eyes. “What? I thought that’s what you meant…”
I can see why she thought that. She knows about our fertility issues, and maybe we didn’t phrase any of this clearly enough.
“No. We want to adopt you, sweetheart,” I say with a smile. “If you’ll have us. You can stay here anyway, no pressure, but this just makes it all a little more formal and legal.”
She starts to cry again and Alejandro stares at me with a look of bewilderment on his face. I can tell how helpless he feels.
“You don’t have to decide right now,” I say as I kiss her on the top of her head.
“Are you kidding me?” she says, then starts to laugh as she wipes her tears on her sleeve. “You guys seriously want to adopt me?”
“Yes,” we say in unison.
“Then, hell yes. I’m in,” she shrieks as she jumps from her stool and pulls me into a hug. “Get over here, Daddy A,” she says as she beckons Alejandro to us.
He walks over and wraps his arms around the two of us. “Please don’t ever call me that again, Lucia,” he says with a stern look we all know is fake.
“Okay, I’ll think of something more appropriate,” she says with a smile as she buries her head against his chest.
He looks over the top of her hair at me and smiles. This isn’t the family we planned, but it is the one we have, and the one we are thankful for. Perfect in its own way.