Yours, Mine and Ours

Chapter Twenty-Six: The Process Begins

“You can’t do that,” Allison snapped furious at the couple’s announcement that they wished to adopt her great-niece, she had been so sure that things would go her way; she had everything planned to take Sophie back to America with her.

The social worker looked at Allison, she had no idea why the woman was so upset since it meant that Sophie would have a steady upbringing.

“We have all the paperwork here,” Lionel mused pleased that his lawyer had been able to draw it up quickly and everything was in order; they had done everything that they could to make sure the social services couldn’t say no.

Katania sat Sophie on her lap, they’d already had their initial checks when they had taken Sophie on as her legal guardians and they had been assessed before so they didn’t have to worry about that now.

The social worker nodded her head taking the papers from Lionel and looking through them, the couple were her easy case and she was impressed that they wished to take this step now.

Allison stared at the social worker, her plans had been so well thought out and she hadn’t been expecting them to do anything like this; she could only hope that they weren’t able to adopt Sophie.

“Everything seems to be in order,” the social worker replied nodding her head, she popped the paper work into her folder so that it could be filed; she was sure that the couple had more sets since it was a rather lengthy process.

Lionel smiled pleased, he wasn’t going to let Allison get in the way and he hoped that with the adoption process started that everything would go perfectly now.

“I’ll speak to my supervisor and we should be able to have this sorted out within a month,” the social worker stated a lot of the formalities had already been taken care of and it would certainly shorten the adoption process for the couple.

***

Lionel balanced Sophie on his hip as he was looking forward to being able to call her his daughter, it wouldn’t be long and the social worker had reassured him that they wouldn’t drag this out.

Lionel would apply more than once if that was what it took to make that happen, he knew that Allison wanted Sophie for her own selfish means and he couldn’t let the woman have her.

“So will you be changing her name?” Gerard asked smiling at his best friend, he had been surprised when Lionel had shown up to their mid-week training session with Sophie but he guessed that it had something to do with Allison hovering around still.

Lionel nodded his head, he had talked about it with Katania and they had agreed that it would be for the best; Sophie would be their daughter even if they would one day tell her about her real parents, they didn’t want her to ever forget Sergio or Martha.

“Sophie Isabel Messi Fernandez,” Lionel confirmed hoping that Sophie wouldn’t be angry with what they had done, they had planned to tell her when she was old enough to understand what her parents’ death meant.

Gerard nodded his head liking the name, he was sure that Sophie wouldn’t be the only child that would hold the Messi Fernandez surname; he could only imagine what a baby made by Lionel and Katania would look like.

“What?” Lionel asked spotting the look on his best friend’s face, he could only imagine what Gerard was thinking about right now; he had a feeling that it was something to do with him and Katania.

Gerard shook his head with a smile, the couple had barely been together for a month now and it was way too soon for him to be thinking about anything like that.

“It’s nothing… you just look really happy,” Gerard teased hoping that it stayed that way, he didn’t want anyone ruining his friend’s happiness when he was doing so well with his life.

Lionel chuckled and nodded his head, he looked at Sophie with a smile if she hadn’t come into his life then he would have been trapped in a relationship that he hadn’t realised was only going to end with him hating Antonella.

“I am happy… happier than I have been in a long time,” Lionel admitted cuddling Sophie, he had no idea what he would ever done without her and he wasn’t going to let her go.

Gerard grinned watching Lionel with the little girl, she babbled happily as she was cuddled by Lionel; he was thankful that she had come into his friend’s life when she had, even if it wasn’t under the best circumstances.

“She’s so cute,” Neymar said moving to fuss on the toddler, he still couldn’t believe that Lionel was taking the big step to adopt the little girl but he knew that it was for the best after everything that had happened.

No one had been that surprised when Lionel had told him of his and Katania’s decision to adopt Sophie; it made so much more sense since they both adored the little girl.

“How are things between you and Katania?” Gerard asked curiously, things had been so tense since Allison had shown up and with the decision to adopt he could only guess how stressful things had been with work starting on their house.

***

Katania brushed her fingers through her hair, she had the afternoon to herself since Lionel had taken Sophie to his training session; they had finished with the social worker and Allison had disappeared off to sulk.

Katania shook her head moving around the kitchen, she was doing a bit of the washing since she didn’t want it piling up; she chewed on her lip as she wondered just what they were going to do when work started on their home.

The main house was in the process of being knocked down and Katania was a little worried where they were going to be staying when work started on the house; they had already been told that everything would be done by March.

Katania paused as her foot caught on a loose floor board, she grumbled annoyed as she realised that she had knocked it out of place; she got down on her knees when she spotted a small box that lay inside the hole.

Katania frowned slowly pulling the loose floor-board out of the way, she brushed some hair from her face carefully picking up the box and lifting it out of the floor; she wondered if Lionel knew that it was there since it looked like it had been placed there only a year or two ago.

Katania sat on the floor curious, she had no idea what was inside and she was sure that Lionel would have said something if he had known it was there.

Katania opened the box slowly and looked at its contents, she frowned staring at the papers that lay inside; she had no idea what this box was for but it was clear that whoever had put it under the floor-board hadn’t wanted it to be found.

Katania carefully lifted pieces of paper out, she was trying to find something that would give her a clue as to what this box was for; she would place everything back when she was sure what it was.

Katania stopped when she came across a set of yellow baby booties, they were so small and she felt her stomach turn at what this meant; she carefully lifted them up to reveal the small picture of a baby’s sonogram with a caption under it.

“Baby Messi Roccuzzo 2014,”