Adopted

Chapter 3

The next day, Vale already began to unpack the boxes, and decided to go get some groceries.

As she walked down the street, the mayor – who was working in Ms. Busybody's yard – saw her and called her.

"Valeria! Valeria!" he called.

She stopped and walked towards Bessie's house.

"Hello, Mr. Meanswell! Good to see you working!" she said.

"Yes, I guess you already heard about... You know what." Milford said.

"Yeah, Alex told me. I'm so sorry for you two." Valeria told him.

"Thank you. Why it's good to see you too! You look even more beautiful in real life than what Sportacus- I mean Alex, showed me in the pictures!" the mayor said.

"Why, thank you, that's flattering, but I have to go to the grocery store and start filling my fridge." She gently smiled at him and walked towards the grocery store.

"Well, bye!" he waved to her.

On her way to the grocery store, she noticed her husband sitting next to Stephanie on a bench at the park. She really wanted to join them, but she decided to give Stephanie some time before she starts to investigate her.

After she left the grocery store, she decided to go the pharmacy which was right around the corner. She wanted to be prepared, so she bought a pregnancy test, since she knew they were going to do it very soon.

As she was getting closer to the soccer field, Sportacus's crystal blinked. Apparently, Stingy kicked the soccer ball way to high, and it was about to hit Valeria.

Luckily, Sportacus caught it in time.

"Vale! Are you ok?" Sportacus asked her, worried.

"Yes, but your friends must be more careful." Valeria said.

"Now, I'm going to make my part of our deal and continue to unpack my boxes, so if you'll excuse me..." she said and walked away.

She continued to walk home, when she Stephanie, still sitting on that bench at the park. She stared at the ground, and once in while at the sky.

Valeria couldn't help it and she went to sit next to her.

"Hello, Stephanie." Valeria greeted her softly.

"Oh, hi, um..." Stephanie had no idea who was she.

"Valeria Scheving." Vale offered her hand.

"Oh, yeah, I heard about you. You're Sportacus's wife. You moved yesterday, right?" Stephanie asked, making an eye contact with her.

"Yes. And I already heard about your... Um... Parents. So I just wanted you to know that my door is always open for you." Valeria smiled at her.

"Thanks." Stephanie gave her a little smile.

"And I also want to tell you that it is ok to mourn and be sad as long as you want. You can't force yourself to be happy and fake a smile when you're actually sad. I've lost many people in my life, whether if they were old or sick or whatever, and I just let my real feelings out. Sure, in some point you'll have to stop and move on with your life. But you're not going to stop think about them, and how you loved each other, they will always be part of your life and stay in your memory. And when you come to the memory when you last saw them or talked to them – don't be afraid to let out what you feel." Valeria told her with tears in her eyes.

"Wow. Never thought of that. Thank you, Valeria." Stephanie's smiled became wider and she sat straight.

"You're welcome. And since we're friends now, you can call me Vale." Valeria smiled back.

Then she noticed that Stephanie's playing with something on her wrist. A bracelet.

"What's that on your wrist?" Valeria asked curiously. This bracelet looked awfully familiar.

Stephanie took it off her wrist to show her closely.

It was made with real white pearls and there was a golden charm. Angel wings golden charm.

"That's a bracelet I got from my mom. She said it was made by real pearls and real gold. She got it from her mother who got from her mother." Stephanie explained.

"Oh... Well, it is looks beautiful... Um, I got to... cough... go back home and... cough... put my groceries in the fridge and some... other stuff. Bye!" Vale nervously ran from the bench.

It was already 19:30. Sportacus walked the children home from the playground. Then he came home. No, not to the airship. To Valeria's new home, which was kind of also his.

"Hey, Vale!" he entered the door, seeing Vale sitting on the sofa.

"Why there's a smell of detergents in the kitchen? And why are you tapping with your foot on the floor?" He asked suspiciously.

"Some of the groceries fell and spilled on the floor." She answer, stopping to bite her nails for a few seconds.

"Oh, god, what happened?" He asked and sat on the couch next to the sofa.

"The bracelet." She said nervously.

"What?" Sportacus was confused.

"The bracelet. The bracelet I got before my great-grandmother died. She died a month after our baby was born. She gave it to me in my baby shower, because it was precious to her, like I was to her. I put it inside the baby's bed in the hospital, for luck, because it's a belief in our family that this bracelet has positive energy. And it was gone with our baby! That's our baby, Alex! That's our baby girl, Chloe!" she started to cry.

"Are you really sure that's the same bracelet?" Sportacus asked hesitated.

"Yes. My great-grandmother had close friends who owned a big jewellery store, and now their great-grandchildren owns it. They made it especially for her, because their pearls jewellery didn't come with charms like the Angel wings charm. They made it especially for her, for her 30 birthday, because she loved angels. My parents still have some of her angel figures and statues at home. There can't be another one like this." She explained, her eyes were puffy and red from crying.

"So now you believe my suspicions that she might be our daughter?" Sportacus asked her.

"Oh, you have no idea how much I believe that." She said. "But we still need to tell her uncle about that. And then tell her that we might be her real parents. We all need to do a DNA test for that."

"Mm-Hm. Now, let's not talk about that, let's cheer you up. How's the unpacking going?" he asked trying to change the subject.

"I'm done with it." She said, lying on the sofa with her head to his direction.

"Wow, that fast?" he was surprised.

"Yeah, well, you helped me a lot yesterday, so I didn't have that much to unpack. In fact, it relaxed me more than unpack the groceries." She replied.

"I see. So since we had a deal, why don't we-" he tried to trick her.

"Don't even think about it, the whole bracelet thing really got me down. But at least you tried." She teased him.

"Yup. So maybe I should let you rest. With all the things you were through today..." Sportacus suggested.

"You're not staying with me tonight?" she turned on her stomach.

He hesitated for a second. She may not be in a mood to do it tonight, but they missed each other for so long.

"Of course I will." He smiled at her, and move to the sofa to hug her.

"And to make it up to you, we'll do it tomorrow night, ok?" she laughed.

"Hahaha, ok." He laughed too, and then he carried her in bridal style to her – sorry, their – bedroom.