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“Thank you,” I answer. “I – ”
She leaves before I can finish, her attention called by a younger woman, her daughter maybe. I turn mine back to Triss and Lara.
Family. Indeed, that’s how I see them, even though I’ve only known them for a month. I was ready to treat Lara as my own daughter when I thought she was Triss’s, and even now, if the police fail to find her real parents, I know Triss and I will gladly love her as our child just like Mitch and Abby loved me. If there’s anything they taught me, it’s that family is not determined by blood.
But that’s not my decision to make. Tomorrow, we’ll hand Lara over to Child Services. We have to give her back, or at least try. It’s the right thing to do when you find something that doesn’t belong to you. And if the police find her real parents or even a blood relative, Triss and I will never see her again. The three of us will never be a family.
I try to tell myself it’s okay. Triss and I can have children of our own. I can still have a family with her. Still, I can’t help but feel sad about letting Lara go. I know Triss feels the same way. That’s why she asked for one more day.
One more day that is soon coming to an end.
Triss picks Lara up and walks towards me.
“Is everything okay?” I ask her as I stand up.
She hands Lara to me. “Just hold her for a bit. I need to go to the restroom.”
“Okay.”
She walks off. I sit down and put Lara on my lap. She fusses and stretches her arms towards the bubbles. I turn her around and lift her up and down to make her laugh. She does. I smile.
I’m going to miss that sound.
My gaze falls on Lara’s pink bracelet. Triss said she found it in the bassinet so it must be Lara’s.
I recall my previous flashback. A girl holding a marble that looks like one of the pink beads. I still don’t know who she is.
Suddenly, I see her again. This time, I see her face. Brown eyes. Somehow, they look like they’re about to cry. And thin red lips. I see her black hair flowing past her shoulders. She holds the pink marble in one hand and mutters something. I hear a name.
Leo?
“Antonio.”
Triss’s voice jolts me back to reality, like the snap of a finger drawing me out of a spell. The memory vanishes like a cloud of smoke.
“What are you doing holding Lara up like that?”
I realize I haven’t put her down, though she doesn’t seem to mind. Triss takes her and puts her on her lap.
“Sorry,” I mutter.
“It’s okay. What were you thinking of?”
“A flashback,” I answer honestly. “Do you remember when you cooked curry and Lara laughed for the first time?”
“Yes. I’ll never forget it.”
“I had a flashback then. I was thinking of it now, and somehow the memory just expanded.”
“Really? Why don’t you think of it some more?”
I try, but I can’t get anything else. I shake my head.
“It’s Lara, isn’t it?” Triss says. “Lara helps you remember. Maybe we shouldn’t give her back.”
I turn to Triss with furrowed eyebrows. “Triss, we’ve talked about this. Giving her back is the right thing to do.”
“Is it? Her father left her with me. What kind of man does that?”
I shrug. “Maybe he didn’t have a choice.”
“Why wasn’t he with his wife? Shouldn’t she have been with her? And why didn’t Ned hear anything about a missing baby? Doesn’t that mean they’re not looking for her?”
“We don’t know that,” I tell Triss. “We don’t know anything. That’s why we need the help of the police.”
“What if the wrong people come forward? Like they’re just pretending to be her parents.”
“Child Services will be able to tell. Maggie isn’t the only one who can get a DNA test done. They’re not going to hand a baby over to some random couple just like that.”
“What if her parents are bad?”
I let out a sigh. Triss isn’t going to stop, is she?
“Triss, we’ve made our decision,” I remind her. “We’re going to hand Lara over to the authorities and they will find out where she truly belongs.”
She ignores me. “What if someone tries to kidnap her again? What if she’s taken from Child Services?”
I pause. Come to think of it, that is possible. I thought before that it was Jim who tried to take Lara because she was his daughter, but now I know that’s not the case. Who tried to kidnap her? I’ll be sure to ask Ned’s friend tomorrow.
I squeeze Triss’s hand. “Lara will be fine.”
She shakes her head. “You don’t know that.”
“This was what you were planning on doing, too, remember? You were going to leave Lara and then I was going to contact Child Services.”
