THALIA

33. Adopted

• THALIA •

Gio told me his Dad wanted to see me. I won't lie, I'm pretty scared right now. I'm stood in front of the door leading to Rich's office, trying to work up the courage to knock on the hardwood.

But before my hand even gets the chance to connect with the door, it opens. Rich stands by the doorway, looking confused. "Oh, Thalia. Come in."

I take a deep breath and walk into the office. Rich tells me to take a seat on the sofa and then he sits down on the air chair opposite.

"Wow, this feels like an interview." I whisper under my breath.

Rich laughs, "don't worry. There's no interviews undergoing."

There's a nervous energy in the air today. I'm tapping my fingers against my thigh to the beat of a song to stop myself from having an anxiety attack, and it looks like Rich is currently on a mental fight versus himself.

"You wanted to talk to me?" I ask but fully knowing that the answer is yes.

"Yeah, I do." Now it's Rich's turn to take a deep breath. He reaches for a file of papers on the coffee table. Picking up the brown envelope, he takes the sheets of paper out and places the envelope back on the coffee table.

Okay what is going on? Am I being fined for the graffiti finally?

"I'm sorry about the graffiti! I was... bored? I don't know. I don't really have a good excuse but who's it really going to affect?"

Rich looks entirely confused. "No, this isn't about any graffiti, sweetheart."

My lips form into an O shape.

He continues, "it's actually about your future. And um, I'm going to propose something to you. You completely have a right to yell at me, but please do not completely shut this down."

"Okay." I agree quietly.

He takes one of the sheets of paper out the stack and places it down on the small table positioned in between us. I pick the sheet up and look to Rich for confirmation that I should be picking it up. He nods his head, confirming.

I scan over the the first few sentences which are all about law etc. I immediately stop reading when the word adoption shows up.

My mind instantly goes to the worst. "Oh my god, please, I cannot be adopted by Esmerelda. Being fostered by her and Peter was bad enough but adopted. Please, god no! I thought you said I was safe?!"

Rich leans forward and puts a comforting hand on my knee, "no no no, you are safe, sweetheart. This isn't about Esmerelda and Peter adopting you, it's actually about me adopting you."

Him.

He wants to adopt me.

I think my world stops spinning, right here, right now. I can't form a proper grammatically correct sentence right now. I'm too she'll shocked. I'm on the verge of sobbing. I don't think I've ever met anyone so kind and compassionate and just overall a lovely human being.

I take a deep breath and try to collect myself, "Thankyou. I really really mean that. But I can't - you have six sons, you don't need another kid to look after and nurture."

He shakes his head and silently tells me "you've got it all wrong".

"You're right. I don't need to adopt you, but I want to. And to be quite honest, I do actually feel like I need to. And I don't mean that in a horrible way. I just have some sort of instinct to protect you. I haven't quite figured out the feeling yet. But please let me. I think it's the best for all of us. You'll be safe for once in your fucking life, sweetheart. And I promise you now, I'll protect you from your past as much as I fucking can. I understand it might take you time to trust me but I'm filling to wait every day of this year and the next and any longer after that too. Please trust me, Thalia. I won't let you fall. And if you do end up falling, I'll be right behind you."

I can't help it, I sob.

I sob because of this man's kindness.
I sob because I've finally met a friend.
I sob because maybe it's all finally coming to an end.
I sob because someone's willing to fall with me.
I sob because I think I might have unintentionally found a family.

A huge part of me is telling me to reject him. To run away and go survive on stolen goods from the local market. But I don't give in to the negativity this time.

So I'm gonna fucking say hell yeah, and I'm not gonna feel sorry about it.

"Okay."

"Okay?" He forests, with the biggest smile on his face.

"Yeah," I smile. "But I'll make sure I stay out of your way. And I'll get a job and I'll pay for my own clothes and school stuff. I'll find myself a school to go to and I'm pretty good at cooking, so maybe I could make dinner some times. Or all the time if you want."

Rich puts a hand on mine to stop my flow of thoughts. "Sweetheart, I don't want you to stay out of the way. I want you to feel comfortable. And if you wanna get a job, you can get a job. But I'll give you my black card and you can go all out and buy whatever you need. If you want to cook, you can. But you don't need to. And you'll go to school with the boys. Don't worry about the costs."

I go to thank him but there's nothing I can say in this moment to really express my gratitude, so I stand up and tackle him with a tight hug. Which Rich reciprocates instantly. "Thankyou so much." I whisper, tears streaming out my eyes.

"Anytime, sweetheart." He whispers back holding my head in his hand.