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Elias’s expression eased ever so slightly. ‘You don’t think there’ll be other good foster parents?’
‘There’s no guarantee she’ll get someone good and frankly there’s no one as good as me.’ Desperation shuddered through her and released in a volley of raw truth. ‘I’mhere.Iknow her.Ilove her. And I can care for her better thananyoneelse ever could because Iknowwhat it’s like!’
It took her a second to realise that not only had Elias stepped closer, but somehow she was basically leaning against him.
‘You have a relationship with her.’ The softest query.
‘From the first.’ Darcie couldn’t bear to think of those years when she and Zara and lived together in their cramped, cold flat. ‘Now I see her every Sunday unless I’m away, but even then I talk to her by phone. I refuse to disappear from her life and I willneverstop fighting for her.’ She drew breath and pushed back, pulling her wallet from her pocket she flipped it open so he could see the photo of Zara holding Lily. She needed to show him, to see his reaction.
He released her and remained still, the slightest of frowns knitting his brow as he studied the picture. Then he looked back up at her. She knew he was processing.Thiswas the Elias she understood. Quick at comprehending. Quietly assessing all angles at lightning speed. Evaluating and deciding.
‘But you’ve not been able to foster her until now,’ he clarified.
Yeah, straight to the problem.
‘They won’t let me.’ She dragged in another breath. ‘At least they haven’t until now. Apparently I was too young to apply to care full-time for a foster child when Zara died.’
There was a little more to it than that, but some things were too personal. Too mortifying.
‘How long ago was that?’
‘Just over three years,’ she explained. ‘Now I’m older but her latest social worker implied that being married will make me appear even more mature and capable of caring for her. That they’ll think I’m less likely to ditch her and go clubbing.’
Bitterly she remembered the judgement of the case worker who’d come to see her the day Zara had died. The assumptions the woman had made when she’d seen where Zara and Darcie had lived. She’d instantly decided she’d never allow Darcie to keep caring for Lily. Darcie had had to fight hard to even stay in touch with the child.
‘Clubbing? You?’ Elias’s gaze intensified. ‘Have you ever gone clubbing?’
‘Not in recent times,’ she muttered, a cinder of embarrassment curling up from someplace buried deep.
‘What else does this social worker suggest you need?’
‘To be financially stable.’
‘That’s why you live in that place,’ he muttered. ‘You were saving all your money.’
‘Yes.’
‘But you can’t raise a child in that tiny room.’ He leapt to the next point. ‘Where were you and whatshisname going to live? Does he have more of an apartment than you?’
‘His flat is perfectly adequate.’
‘Is it?’ His mouth compressed into a flat line.
His scepticism made her defensiveness flare. ‘We don’t all need to live in a glass penthouse a stone’s throw from Michelin restaurants and celebrity haunts. Some of us have more simple requirements.’
‘Living within a stone’s throw of Michelin restaurants isn’t a necessity for a child,’ he agreed. ‘I’d have thought parks and peace would be more of a priority.’
‘His flat was near a park.’
The muscle in his jaw flicked. ‘So you need financial security, a good place to live and the appearance of stability in your personal life to enhance your application, do I have that correct?’
‘It’s the start, yes.’ There would be interviews and assessment and monitoring but she would have the chance at least to prove that she could provide a loving home for Lily.
‘I assume you’d need to present a happily married facade and demonstrate you’re decent caregivers for the girl.’
‘I would be the primary caregiver.’
‘Of course.’ He nodded. ‘How long?’
