I'll give you my sunshine

Chapter 27

Frankie's POV:

Dead.

My mum was dead.

I had just been told that my mum had died. And I wasn't sad.

How was that possible?

Shouldn't I feel something?

Pulling me from my thoughts, I felt a hand on my shoulder, i turned around to see it was Taylor, she had a deadpan look on her face.

She looked down at me and made a sort of "are you ok" face, to which I gave back a small nod.

"I'm so sorry for your loss" the doctor said to me.

I shrugged, I didn't want to look totally heartless but also didn't want to make out that she was a better person than she was.

"Why don't we let Dr Richards go do whatever he needs to do now, and you two follow me." Rachel the social worker said.

I looked up at Taylor, who nodded, and we followed Rachel down the hall.

At this point I had been walking and/or standing on my leg for a while and it was beginning to hurt, so I wasn't thrilled at the long walk through what felt like the whole hospital.

Eventually, we reached a quieter area of the hospital that seemed to be access only as Rachel the social worker had to tap her lanyard on something to open the door.

She led us into this super white straight-out-of-a-horror-movie looking room, with a super bright fluorescent light.

"Would you like anything to eat or drink." Rachel the social worker asked as we sat down at the table in the middle of the room.

"I'm ok thank you." I said, smiling politely.

"Me too." Taylor said.

"Ok, well let's get started then." Rachel said.

Rachel bent down to the handbag at her feet, and pulled out some kind of file.

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions, both of you." She said, looking at me and Taylor. "I'm going to go through everything as efficiently as we can, you can ask any questions at any moment,"

Taylor and I both nodded, and she started.

"So, in Ms Morris's will, it actually doesn't specify where Frankie would be placed if anything were to happen to her." Rachel the social worker said.

"Ok, so what does that mean then?" Taylor asked. Under the table she put her hand around mine, and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"Well, we looked into the family of Frankie and who Ms Morris may have wanted Frankie to go to, and we discovered that Frankie's father, Joseph Morris, still technically has joint custody over Frankie, and so in her passing legally you would go move in with your dad." Rachel said.

My heart dropped.

"No, that can't be right. I haven't seen my dad since I was a baby. I- I don't even know what he looks like. And my mums maiden name is Morris, he wouldn't have the same one." I said, feeling my eyes gloss over with water as I tried not to cry.

"I know this is a lot to process, but in your parents divorce, neither parent got full custody, obviously I don't know the logistics of the arrangement as it wasn't legally documented, but you and your mom moved here, and your dad and sister stayed in England." Rachel said, checking her folder.

"I don't have a sister." I said, feeling quite panicked and overwhelmed now, the room was spinning, I felt sick and I couldn't focus on anything.

"Yeah, her name is Maisie, she's 17, 18 in a-few months." Rachel said, somehow not seeing how stressed this was making me.