Fateful beginning of vacations

Chapter 42: The day after tomorrow

"I'm talking about adoption." said Jochen briefly.

"Adoption?" all four asked at the same time.

"Relax, I told you not to hold it against me. I know it's too early to talk about this, but you could at least try. I'm exaggerating now, please don't take me so seriously: The poor traumatized girl without a family has only her aunt and she is so gracious and not only takes her in as a ward, but also agrees to adopt her and thus integrates her completely into her family and also makes sure that she is not alone and gets a sister and in addition a few tears and the absolute desire to stay here and then the guardianship of your ex should go down in smoke and mirrors. As I said, that was very short and exaggerated, I would have to work on it a bit until the appointment. But that only works if you want to do it that way," Jochen explained his plan.

"Whew...you're almost running us over with that now," Helen replied. "Can I send you and Sandra into the living room for a minute to discuss this with them alone?"

"Of course. Sandra are you coming?" he said shortly as he rose and was already heading for the door.

"Sure moment." Sandra returned, gave Kathi another kiss and left the kitchen with her father.

The three took a generous sip from their coffee cups and Sarah lit a cigarette. After that, there was a moment of awkward silence, which was finally broken by Kathi: "That's his plan? Seriously?"

"Well, he's already said that he doesn't mean any harm and that it's actually too early for that. Would that be something you would consider, then, or are you absolutely against it?" asked Helen.

"This is all happening too fast for me." replied Kathi, tears forming in her eyes. Sarah, who was still sitting next to her moved a little closer to her and took her in her arms and talked to her soothingly, "Hey, it's all good. We all know that this is all coming one after the other pretty darn fast and that we're asking a lot of you here in terms of decisions that no one wants to make. Either way we are there for you alright?" Kathi looked at Sarah in wonder, while still a few tears found their way out of her eyes. Since when was Sarah suddenly so empathetic. It wasn't really like her, at least not when she remembered the last few days, but maybe those were after-effects having to do with her mother's death. She gently disengaged from Sarah. "Thank you." she said softly. Sarah just nodded back mutely.

Sarah's mother was still waiting for a response from Kathi.

"Kathi? Are you alright?" she asked kindly.

"It's, like I said it's all happening so fast and it's just too much that's happening." she replied tersely.

"I know it's a lot, but I'm afraid I still need an answer to the question of whether or not adoption would be an option for you?" asked Helen again.

Kathi sat back, closed her eyes and let her mind wander. She didn't know how long she had closed her eyes. When she opened her eyes again, she stared into two still perplexed faces. She took a deep breath and finally told them both her decision, "I agree."

"Very well. Sarah?" asked Helen.

"Yes?" asked Sarah back.

"What about you? Are you okay with that too or not?" asked her mother more clearly.

"Agreed." came a quick reply.

"So we have three yes's then we won't keep them waiting. Kathi will you be good enough to let them know we're ready?" replied Helen.

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With shaky hands, Mrs. Müller dialed the phone number. Why did she even go along with this. Her damned boss had nothing better to do than to drag her into a small war and she was allowed to do the dirty work as usual. Of course she could not resist to take a look into the sealed envelope. As he had said, inside was a testimony, a testimony from his daughter and a document signed by his ex-wife. She briefly compared the signatures and was quickly able to expose the obvious forgery he had addressed. No normal person would deliver his own daughter to the knife, but this bastard did it without batting an eye. Possibly he had lost his soul over the years because of his job, or he had always been like that. The problem, no matter what he did he got away with it, she secretly hoped he wouldn't succeed this time. She pressed the last key on the phone booth's number pad and waited for a dial tone, which sounded a few seconds later.