A/N: NOT THOROUGHLY EDITED.
Chapter 5 – A Foot in the Home Direction (Kalenah Conrad POV)
Family is not always the people that share your DNA; sometimes it is the connection that formed in your heart. The people that as you grow play parts – small or large – in your life, they may offer a helping hand in a time of need, or before you really realize, you've built a bond that may be stronger than DNA.
The frames that hold our parts together, I've always believed could make love look as though it was less than how I felt. If someone only heard the way my children, husband and I spoke to one another, received snippets of information withholding our physical images, one would never know that we had two adoptive children. It's only when you look at us that Harleigh's reddish dark brown hair is noticed, or Samantha's caramel brown skin is taken into consideration. Our features garner the curious, questioning or sometimes dismissive stares. As though our differences meant that I loved my Samantha less than my Talia.
When I first saw Talia on the ultrasound monitor, I fell in love with that little person inside me, but when I first saw Samantha – nearly four years old already – I loved her instantly as well. We had a full bunch, however I laid my eyes upon her and knew, felt as though my heart had space for this little girl with no one else to care for her. With that wave of emotion, I went to my husband, discussing this little girl that I had stumbled upon. It was not often that a child like Samantha was found – a shifter among humans – but like my parents, every once in a while we went to nearby group homes, searching, checking to make sure that one of our kind wasn't left because of the death of a parent.
It's as though Samantha was just waiting for me, outside on the porch, watching the other children play, her hands over her ears, a frown on her face that pulled me in completely. With our brood, it took some time to convince Ansel that we should open our home to this little girl permanently but once he met her, he was quite taken to her. And so, Samantha came home, and we continued through the human process of adopting this little gem. I wanted to help. It's a blanket statement but that was just my way. I could not see someone and be able to help, but consciously decide to look the other way.
Leaving Talia's room, I overhear Walsh and Patricia speaking, "what do we do now? Hire someone? Find her a place to live here?"
"We have responsibilities-" already hearing this particular discussion between the two, I make myself scarce though Faith is never far from my thoughts. I had read her file; I knew what that poor child had suffered. Along with Walsh and Patricia we had all decided that she would be in immediately put into therapy once she started classes, giving them pointers for two months they worked on getting her acclimated to her new surroundings and I would be the one to pick up where they left off. The school given the bare minimum when it came to her situation, the resident adviser a friend of the family, would look out for her while she was on campus.
Walsh knew that Dmitri was for the most part someone in our world, and as for Faith, neither Ansel or I could get a read on why he would've kept her hidden away as he did, feeding that child so many lies about a war. He hadn't kept track of many things, leaving us with little to no information on the poor girl, but my insides turned when I read the file that Walsh faxed, when we met without Faith around to discuss her habits. The truth that she would go months on her own since the age of ten or eleven, had never been outside as far as she knew, the lies – but holy truths she believed and – she revealed to Walsh, the look of shock and surprise and the silly outlandish comments she made. The shame she carried at being duped but staying strong and holding onto a love for Dmitri that was truly the worse case of Stockholm syndrome that I had dealt with. It was not typical either since for the most part, Dmitri treated Faith the way I would want my children to be treated had all the lies – Independents, Loyalists, Regime, the war and poisonous air – all had been true. With the conditions – made up as they were – in mind and not other factors included, Faith would be considered lucky, but the truth was there were no Independents, Loyalists, or war, the air was not poisonous.
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Loving Ashlynn (#Wattys2016)
Werewolf"Her name isn't Sophie, I lied, her name is Fatima Safiya Ashlynn - I thought she would die where I left her."
