We found you •Chaelisa

Chapter 30

Pov Roseanne Park

Lisa walked nervously beside me, so nervous that she forgot to hold my hand as we walked through the door of Jennie's office.

An employee greeted us, asking for our names and asking us to wait, since Jennie was seeing a mother at the moment, and we sat down in the chairs near the entrance.

- Hey, relax. - I noticed Lisa moving her legs non-stop, like a nervous tic.

- I'm fine, don't worry. - I would have believed those words if Lisa hadn't been so bad at hiding her real feelings.

- Do you know something I don't? - I asked, finding her reactions strange. Ever since we'd left the house for the appointment, she'd been extremely nervous.

- No, I'm just nervous, we'll have answers today and I'm afraid of them.

I understood what Lisa meant, I shared the same fear as hers - the fear that Anthony had suffered things we couldn't even think about. But I could see the silver lining, since knowing the problem would give Anthony a 100% chance of getting better.

- Ladies, you can come with me.

We stood up at the same time, following the woman into the familiar consulting room, which we had visited many times before because Anthony had frequent appointments there.

A lady came out of Jennie's office and hugged her before walking to the exit.

- Good afternoon, girls. - She said smilingly, ushering us in.

This wasn't the room Jennie used with the children, but the room she used to talk about her cases with the parents. I started to feel nervous too as I sat down in a comfortable armchair next to Lisa, who still couldn't keep still with her leg.

- Well, you can start. - I felt Lisa's hand touch my arm until it found mine.

- First, congratulations.

- Congratulations? - Lisa asked confusedly, glancing at me to turn her attention back to Jennie.

- Anthony's IQ is higher than expected for his age. - She said, handing us two sheets of paper, evaluations that he had done.

- Wow. - I said in surprise. - And why does he have so many social traits? - I asked confusedly, placing the papers on the table between us.

- I want to start by saying that I've finished his neuropsychological assessment, and the assessment of his past based on his drawings and reports.

- Has he suffered any kind of abuse? - Lisa asked, which I didn't have the heart to do, and I mentally thanked her for it.

- I can tell you for sure that Anthony has no trace of sexual abuse. - We breathed a sigh of relief, looking at each other with a smile on our lips. - But unfortunately he suffered psychological abuse.

- What do you mean?

- His speech delay and his emotional neediness helped me figure out a few things, I also talked to Sarah for a long time and you know that Anthony ran away from the shelter.

- Yes.

- Anthony has a problem with trust, which explains why his social circle is so restricted, you two found him at an extremely vulnerable moment, and I'll be honest, at first he didn't trust you when you took him back to the shelter.

- He ran away from us too. - Lisa said, remembering that sad day.

- But you didn't abandon him there as he thought you would. Anthony was abandoned by his parents at a very young age, which causes a huge breach of trust.