When They See Us (Book 1.0)

Epilogue

Adelaide

I place my back against the shower wall and slouch to the floor. While I'm waiting for the results, I run my fingers through the rug I'm sitting on. The two-week wait drains me, and every time, we don't get the results we want. I cross my fingers this will be the day we've been waiting for.

The last time Macy overdosed was nine years ago, and she genuinely listened to every word I screamed at her that day. She did what I told her to. She didn't take my threat about me dying if she died lightly.

In time, it all worked out well. She has been clean since that day and has never entertained the notion of relapsing.

With time, she finally spoke to someone other than me about what happened when she was 14 years old. I know it's been hard for her, so I went to her meetings with her for support. She still goes to NA meetings and therapy.

She spent countless nights crying after being released from the hospital out of fear that she messed up our relationship. She didn't though, and I reminded her every day that I would always be by her side. Macy has a disease. Just because she hasn't used narcotics in nine years doesn't mean she doesn't still have urges or times in her life that get too hard and tempt her.

It took a while for her to forgive Juliet. For most of the first year Juliet was back in her life, she didn't talk to her much, but when they had their son, something in Macy changed. Regardless of the pain, she felt seeing her mother raise another child, that child was her brother. So she put their differences aside so she could be in his life. We babysat him a lot, and every time, I saw the light in her eyes sparkle from seeing her brother. He's 8 years old now, and he's the cutest little boy. Juliet and Daniel have also remained clean the entire time. I believe when she said that the hole in her heart had been healed when she saw her daughter again, it was the truth. Eventually, the hole in Macy's healed as well, and now they have a fantastic relationship.

We both graduated and went on to pursue the career of our dreams. She has started her surgical residency after four years of undergraduate study, four years of medical school, and one year of postgraduate study. The pressure of school never made her relapse, only fueled her desire to stay sober. She recently obtained her Ph.D., and I recently received my MD.

When Macy and I both started college, I was surprised to learn what she had chosen as a major. It confused me that she decided to become a trauma surgeon when stress was the driving force behind her desire for drugs. Her explanation was that witnessing someone else's trauma and being able to help them repair theirs would prove to her that she was not alone in her struggles.

When I asked why not just psychology, she laughed in my face and told me that she had to go big or go home. Working in a hospital puts the drug right in front of her, it gives her the power to say no to them. The substances were no longer in control of her life. She explained that it was her way of doing reverse psychology on her brain.

Every step of the way, I was by her side, and she was by mine. She graduated at the top of her class. She was offered the number one position at the largest hospital in Miami.

As for myself, I decided to pursue a degree in social work. With my master's degree in hand, I have enjoyed my current position for the past three years. I wanted to assist families that had been torn apart, like Macy's. Seeing children in the system broke my heart. It gave me a better understanding of what Macy experienced, and for three years, I was too blind to see her pain. I tried to put myself in their shoes every day, attempting to find more suitable families for them or reconnect them with their own. The person that told Juliet that she was better off without her daughter and that Macy was better off without her mother failed them. There was so much that could have been avoided in their case, but I can't keep living in the past of what-ifs. Instead, I live focusing on the present, finding ways of protecting families and children along with their hopes of making their lives better.

My phone's timer goes off, and I'm jolted out of my reverie by the sound of it. I take a deep breath before opening my palms and staring down at the test. As I read the word "positive," my eyes widened. "Yessss! Finally! Babyyyyyy," I started screaming for her. 

After completing my master's degree, Macy and I began trying for a baby. We wanted to make sure that Macy was stable and wouldn't relapse before trying.

We've been trying for two years now but have had no success. IVF is expensive, and each time we tried it, we received negative results. However, it never deterred us from continuing our efforts when we were unable to conceive at the beginning of our journey.

We found a sperm donor who had blonde hair, plump lips, and freckles similar to Macy's so our children would look physically like her, as much as possible. I know it didn't matter what they looked like though. She would love our children just as much as I.

Macy never wanted to carry, and I was okay with that. I was happy to bring each and every child she'd allow me to have, into this world and love them all tremendously.

Although our previous attempts were unsuccessful with the sperm donor we chose, we continued to try. We learned his sperm count wasn't as high as you would like it to be in this scenario, but we really wanted him. We were very intentional about choosing him to be the donor for our children, and I'm happy it's finally working. After countless tries and never giving up hope, we're finally getting our baby.

She rushes into the bathroom in a state of complete panic. "What's wrong?"

"Read it!" As soon as I show her the pregnancy test, she starts smirking.

"It says positive." I nod my head, a big goofy grin on my face.

"We're having a baby!" I scream, and she grabs my arm and pulls me into her. She links our lips together, and my head begins to spin from all the excitement. I start giggling as soon as she releases me. "Okay, now that it worked! I want like ten!" Her mouth hangs wide in disbelief.

"Too many," she says with a shake of her head.

"Okay, well I want five then Mason, Evelyn, Ethan, Mandy, and I haven't came up with the last name yet."

"You have their names picked out already? How do you know we'll have 3 girls and 2 boys?"

"I don't! That was merely a list of the names I had written down in my diary when we first started trying. I couldn't give a damn about their order or gender. I simply desire to have a large number of little feet pattering across the floor, jumping on our bed each morning trying to wake us up!"

She looks at me, with a smirk on her face. "What?" I say, matching her grin.

"Nothing. I just love you so much, Adelaide."

"I love you, Macy."