IGNITE

21

(AN: Aww I finally finished the story! I think I was in denial for a month! I really wanted this to be a happy story but its not how it turned out. But I still have things planned for Lenny and Axel so no worries! Within the next week or so I will be updating the second story in the series called UNDER CONSTRUCTION. So look out for it! As always, ReVomment. -Opal)

Weeks passed and Axel still didnt know how to approach me. Not that I really blamed him. I sat down at the kitchen table. He made breakfast that morning. Hope was in her pack and play in the next room taking her morning nap. Today was the day that they showed us if Rhett was the father. We already knew the answer and we already had agreements in place with him to sign over his rights.

 

I looked over at Axel and he looked away from me. “Can you please say something?” I pleaded. I couldnt stand the silence. I knew that in a way that I had let him down. Children were a huge factor in our marriage, but Alexis had added in an amendment for that in the contract.

 

“I dont know what to say,” Axel admitted and I looked away from him this time trying not to let the tears fall.

 

When we arrived at the court house, we fell into the role of loving each other without a doubt, doting amazing parents. We walked into the room and sat down in our designated pews, we rose when the judge entered, Alexis, our lawyer for the case, talked to her assistant beside her. Rhett was present, looking tired and not too excited to be in the room. But he was doing it for us, I had to keep telling myself. He was doing it for Hope. In a way he was doing what any good father would do, giving his daughter the right kind of life.

 

“The results have come back and it has been determined that Rhett Neveau is the father of Hope Sheridan. Mr Neveau you agree to relinquish your parental rights over to Mr and Mrs Sheridan?” Rhett looked taken back at first. When we had talked the first few times, he admitted to not even remembering Corrine. That under any other circumstances that he would be ecstatic to be a father, but he didnt want to do it alone. And since, one I was married and wasnt showing any inclination of leaving Axel anytime soon, and two because he had betrayed my trust in more than a million ways, he knew they right thing was just to give up his rights.

 

So he did.

 

When every I was dotted and T was crossed, we left the courtroom, and walked into the hallway. My mother was in the hall, holding Hope. We still hadnt mentioned that that was going to be her only grandchild from us. “Everything is set?” she questioned as she handed Hope over to Axel. I had grown accustomed to that move. He hadnt let me hold her in weeks. Afraid, that in a single moment I would lapse into a state of disbelief and do something I would regret.

 

“Everything is squared away, she is now legally our daughter,” I said speaking mechanically. Axel looked at me and smiled, and only from looking carefully and knowing the man inside and out, did I recognize the sorrow in his smile. He would never really have a daughter or a son of his own. I couldnt give him that.

And normally with my elevated hormones I would have taken that as a sign of defeat. But I just took it as a grain of salt. Because he would have that child he craved for. I eyed my sister walking towards us in her ugly Manolos. Even if I had to plead the devil herself to help us out.