“What if he does it again?”
He places a kiss in my hair. “Then we’ll be prepared again. Noah saw enough back then to know things weren’t right, and I hate that, but it’s invaluable when fighting this.”
We sit cuddled up on the couch until my phone starts dinging.
“That’s my alarm to pick up Jason.”
“I’ll go and get him. How about after dinner tonight, we sit all of them down and tell them what we’re doing? They’ll have to know if we’ve got a social worker coming to see them anyway, and …”
“And, what?”
“I’ve been thinking we can’t just dump this on them. If for some reason any of them don’t want to be adopted by me, we need to listen to their concerns.”
I nod. “I’ve been thinking about that since you said it. Especially Bailey and Kiera. I think Jason will be over the moon.”
He chuckles. “I agree. Now, I’ll just go grab our boy. Be back soon.”
Our boy.
I’m not sure I’ll ever get sick of the way he refers to our children.
And they are our children—adoption or not.
After dinner, we gather everyone in the living room.
Since we moved in, we’ve let the kids do what they want until bedtime. The teens usually disappear into their rooms, and Jason flits between his room and us.
A change in routine makes them suspicious.
I hate this. I hate that whatever my father does impacts my children no matter the outcome. It feels that even though the abusive relationship I was in is over that Malcolm is still abusing me from beyond the grave.
And now my father’s joined in.
Jason’s in the room first. He heads straight for me and buries himself in my side. It’s been a long time coming, but the school counsellor will see him for the first time next week as we try and grow his confidence.
“Are we going to live with Grandad?” Bailey’s eyes meet mine.
“No. Never.”
Relief sweeps her expression, and I hate that he’s put that doubt in their heads.
“Come here, kiddo.” Caleb opens his arms and she falls into them. “Your mum and I will keep all of you safe. That’s a promise.”
“Can you be our dad now? You said when you married Mum that you’d?—”
Caleb exchanges a glance with me. “I’ll keep my word. And I’d love to be your dad. That’s what we want to talk to you about.”
Kiera flicks her gaze between me and Caleb. “Are you going to adopt us?”
“If that’s what you want,” I say. “We didn’t want to make assumptions about what you want, and that’s important in all of this.”
She smiles. “I want it. We have a new life now. And Caleb is the best.”
He laughs. “I’m glad to hear that, kiddo.”
“You don’t yell at us like he did. And you buy us pizza.”
“It was once,” he groans.
