The Way of Fate (Book 1)

34. Phone Calls

Chapter 34: Phone Calls

Allen

Doing everything in my power turned out to be a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. There really wasn't much I could do. I tried, though. Believe me, I was trying my hardest.

When I wasn't at work doing my job - which was mostly trying to get the new branch situated - I was doing research on the adoption process and trying to get in contact with Amy's foster parents. I had gotten their information from child services since I needed to talk to the foster parents about taking Amy from them. Unfortunately, every time I called, I only got their voicemail. It almost felt like they knew I wanted to take Amy from them and they didn't want to deal with me.

But we were getting closer and closer to when Mika and I were going to have to move. The house was bought and his first semester tuition was paid for, which meant we couldn't back out now. I didn't want to have to leave Amy behind and I knew Mika would tear himself up if we did, even if he won't admit it.

I sighed, picking up the phone once more. I'll call one more time today, but if I can't get hold of them now, I didn't know when else I'd be able to.

"Hello?" a woman's voice asked on the other end of the call.

I forgot for a second why I was calling, shocked that someone actually answered. "Um, hello. Is this Stacie Dunhoft?"

"What's it to you?" she snapped, meaning it was, indeed, her.

"Well, my name is Allen Carr and I wanted to talk to you for a bit about a little girl you currently have in your care. Amy Simmons?"

"Oh. That brat." The distaste was obvious in her voice. "What do you want with her?"

To get her far away from you, I thought. Out loud, I said, "Amy is a wonderful young girl that I've had the pleasure of meeting. I've been in contact with the child services representative that placed her into your care, and she directed me to you. I would love to have Amy be a part of my family, if you would be willing to no longer be her guardian."

Stacie scoffed. "You're not that goddamn brother of hers, are you? You're not getting her, you worthless piece of shit."

And that would be why I hadn't mentioned Mika at all to her. "Uh, no. I'm not her brother. I would actually love to be her father, though."

"Oh really?" I could tell her curiosity was peaked now. Maybe this could work after all. "So what's your home life like? Stable relationship? Got enough money?"

Again, this was probably going to be a touchy subject, so I had to tread lightly. "Definitely stable and I earn more than enough to take care of my family and Amy. I'm planning on setting up a college fund for her immediately, just like I've already done for my son. She'll never go hungry, she'll always have clothes, toys, and whatever else she could want. I just want the best for her."

I didn't realize how much I truly meant those words until they were out of my mouth. But even if it were possible for me to ever take back my words, I'd always choose to say them. They were true, after all.

"You have a son?" Stacie questioned. "Also adopted? How old?"

"Not adopted. And he's almost a year."

She didn't say anything right away, so I kept talking, trying to steer her away from asking more questions that could lead back to Mika. If he was brought up, we'd never get Amy. "I'm sure Amy will fit right in with us. I hope you consider handing her over to my care, Mrs. Dunhoft."

She made some sort of weird noise that I couldn't exactly make sense of. "Well, it might be nice to be rid of that useless kid. I'll talk to my husband." With that, she hung up the phone.

I didn't miss a beat before I dialed Mika's phone number. He answered almost immediately.

"Hey," I said. "So I talked to Stacie Dunhoft just now. I think we might actually have a chance."

"Really?" I could hear the excitement in his voice. "That's awesome! What did she say?"

"Well, nothing definite yet. She said she'll talk to her husband tonight. Also, I had to say I wasn't at all affiliated with you, so could you get a message to Amy not to say how she knows me?" It would be awful if Amy mentioned something that ruined the whole plan, not that I expected her to, it was merely a just in case scenario.

"Yeah. I can text her. She gave me her number." Another thing that baffled me about that family. They treated Amy like crap and yet they buy her a cell phone. At least it worked out in our favor for times like these. Hopefully.

"Thanks. How's packing going?"

Mika sighed heavily. "It sucks. Why do you have so much shit? Half of these things I have no idea what their purpose even is. Why do you need it all?"

I chuckled, ignoring the curse word he threw in there - he wouldn't have said it if Sam was in the room listening. Mika had decided he was going to help pack up all of our (mostly my) stuff for when we move to the new house in two weeks. Apparently he was also finding stuff that I barely even thought about anymore. "Just set them aside for now, alright?" I suggested. "I can go through them tonight and see if there's anything I can get rid of."

"Yeah, okay,' he said, then didn't say anything else as I heard him start to shift some boxes around.

I'd like to say I knew him well enough to read the tone of his voice. And I wished he wasn't thinking negatively about this situation. "Hey, Mika?" I said softly into the phone.

"Hmm?"

"She'll be coming with us. I just know it. Our lives were meant to be entwined together. Me and Sammy. You and Amy. The four of us were meant to be the best family out there, and we will be, sooner than you think."

I knew that couldn't be guaranteed, but I didn't feel like I was lying to him. Something brought our two little families together, and I believe we were meant to become one larger family. The four of us. Maybe one day we'll add more, but I wasn't about to bring that up to Mika any time soon.

"How can you be so sure?"

I smiled into the phone, wishing I was at home to tell this to him to his face. "Because I love you and we both are too strong willed to not let this happen."

And maybe, just maybe, fate was finally going to play in our favor for once.