“How do we know that you’re not just trying to spy on us to find a way to make this work for you?” the husband asked.
“You don’t,” I answered bluntly, “but that’s not my intention. From the moment we took Reid off the streets, the only thing I’ve wanted for him is a safe place to stay and to be surrounded by people that care about him. We’ve given him that so far, and I know when you talk to him you’ll realize that. I’m trying to do what’s best for Reid, so I really hope you consider our offer.”
They turned to their lawyer and started speaking in low tones. Florrie dragged me further away from everyone and turned on me with a glare. “How the fuck could you offer that?”
“Florrie-”
“No, you don’t get to do that. You don’t get to pretend like you’re the logical party right now. You’ve just handed them the keys to the safe. How could you do that?”
“I’m thinking of Reid.”
“Bullshit,” she said angrily. “If you were thinking of Reid, you would be fighting harder for him. Ever since that social worker called, all you’ve been doing is walking along as if we just had to go with the flow. You told me you would fight for Reid, but now you’re helping them!”
“Florrie, listen to me, please. Think of Reid right now. Do you really think it’s okay for him to get shipped all the way around the country to visit people he doesn’t know? Do you think that’s going to make him feel safe?”
“I think that he would feel safer knowing we were doing everything we could to keep him with us. Now you want to wrench him out of the home that he’s come to feel safe in and toss him to the wolves.”
“I’m not doing that, Florrie. The court is doing that. I’m just trying to find something that works for all of us.”
“And you think it works for us to have them come live on the same property as us? Where they can see Reid every day and manipulate him?”
“Look at them,” I said harshly, making her look over at the older couple behind us. “Do they look like they want to manipulate us?”
“I think they want to take away Reid. I don’t give a shit if they’re good people or if they’re his family. Reid has been with us all this time. He belongs with us. Why can’t you see that?”
“Alec, Florrie,” our lawyer interrupted us. He jerked his head for us to join the group again. We walked back to the group, Florrie still fuming beside me, and waited for their lawyer to speak.
“Mr. and Mrs. Fuller would like to accept your offer. They agree that this would also be best for Reid, as it would give him a chance to get to know them while still being in the comfort of his own space.”
“Alright,” the social worker sighed. “Court resumes in five minutes. Let’s head back and tell the judge what we’ve agreed to.”
✯✯✯✯✯
“I can’t believe you did that,” Florrie shouted at me as soon as we entered our suite. “How the fuck could you do that?”
“I did what was best for Reid.”
“For Reid or for you?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked angrily.
“Ever since we found out about this, you haven’t been here with me, fighting to find any way to keep him with us. It’s like you don’t even care if he stays with us!”
“I do fucking care. I’ve been right beside you, but you don’t notice because you always run off to do everything on your own. If you’d just stop shutting me out, you’d see that I’m trying to do what’s best for Reid. Do you really think that I want him to leave? I love that kid, but Florrie, he’s not ours. We don’t get to keep him just because we’ve claimed him as ours.”
“We could have if you hadn’t told anyone that he was here!”
I scoffed, angry that she was blaming me for all of this. “Florrie, what part of this don’t you understand? He ran away from home. He was never ours. We were lucky enough to have him as long as we did. Sean could have taken him away from us that night, but he gave us that time. This was always coming.”
“No,” she shook her head wildly. “He’s always been ours. You’re just not willing to fight anymore. You’re just not willing to do what needs to be done.”
“And what’s that? You want to break the law? You want to go on the run?”
“At least he would still be with us!”
“And we’d be criminals!”
“Hey!”
Florrie and I both stopped arguing and turned to the door where Cap stood with Reid. None of us said anything as we waited for Reid’s reaction. I wasn’t sure how much he heard, but it had to be enough to make him think that this was all his fault.
“Hey, bud,” I finally said, stepping toward him. “Sorry about that. Florrie and I were just…we were trying to figure out what to do now.”
“Because of what happened in court,” he added.
“Yeah.”
“I thought maybe we could all sit down and talk about this,” Cap said, the accusation clear in his voice.
“Yeah, we should do that.” We all took a seat in the living room, but I had no fucking clue where to go from here. There was no manual for how to talk to a kid about this.
“Reid,” Florrie started, “The judge decided today that you need to get to know your aunt and uncle. Originally, you were supposed to fly out to spend time with them twice a month, but…” She ground her teeth together and took a deep breath. “But Alec worked it out with Cap that they can come stay here and that way you don’t have to fly back and forth.”
“So, I won’t have
