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“Are you kidding me? When can we move in?”
Malia races after us, and Raf takes her into his arms as he shows her around the room. I trail behind, still in awe at the house. When I’d told Raf my requirements, I was definitely exaggerating. But this? This haseverythingI could have asked for and more.
But most importantly? All of us love it.
After we tour the entire property, we settle with the realtor to close the deal as soon as possible, and he surprises us by saying that we can move in starting next week.
“I think now we need to go shopping for things to decorate the house with,” I add as we go to the car.
“Can I get a pet, Mommy?”
“A pet?” I blink, remembering Lovely—not that I’m ever going to see him again since Michele decided it was his dog now.
“Yes. I want a cat. Afluffycat.”
“I think we can manage that, can’t we?” Raf grins at us.
I shake my head at him. I can already foresee he’s going to be the type of father that will not be able to say no to his baby girl. Not that I’m better myself.
Ah, lucky Malia. She’s going to be quite the spoiled princess.
“A fluffy cat it is,” I laugh.
thirty-six
Rafaelo
“Ready?”I knock on the bathroom door, opening it to find Noelle in front of the mirror, leaning over the sink to apply some lipstick.
“Just a moment,” she mumbles, her lips puckered.
“Malia’s waiting for us.”
“Done,” she declares, skipping happily towards me and lifting herself to press a kiss onto my lips.
“Don’t tell me you put on lipstick just to kiss me,” I chuckle.
“Nope. But I did use your lips to blot the lipstick.” She winks at me.
She walks out of our room, heading down the stairs and calling out for Malia.
It’s been almost a week since we’ve moved to the new place. Although there’s still a lot of work to be done, we’ve managed to make it quite homey—all things considered.
Malia is absolutely in love with her new room, and she’d chosen a lot of toys and accessories to decorate it with. Of course, there’s also her new cat that she’s named Snow for her white fur.
Yet despite the madness of the move, we made sure to set aside a few hours daily to spend it as a family—be it playing a game, watching a movie, or going for a walk.
Our little girl might have gotten her looks from me, but her personality is definitely all Noelle. She has this endearing duality where she’s both independentandcodependent at the same time. She has her own—quite strong—opinions and she enjoys doing things her own way.
But she also loves spending time with us. And when I sayloves, I mean she absolutely adores Noelle, always clutching her hand, or climbing her lap, or hugging her, or just being by her side. It’s to an extent that sometimes she gets jealous when Noelle spends too much time with me.
“You can’t have Mommy. She’s mine now,” she’d say whenever she’d catch us together, grabbing Noelle’s hand and taking her to show her every little random thing.
She’s so cute that I can’t even be mad about it. Especially since I know how happy Noelle is when Malia reaches for her. After all the pain she’s endured over the past few years, she deserves this more than anyone.
In the beginning it might have been daunting, since neither Noelle nor I have much experience with kids. But Malia is one of a kind with her boldness and openness to new things. Lucero had also helped us by making a list of all her likes and dislikes and guiding us whenever we had questions.
Although it’s still quite early, Noelle and I had tentatively agreed that we should homeschool her for the foreseeable future—not only because we might still be in danger, but also because we want to spend as much time with her as possible.
