I Knew I Loved You

Chapter Ten: Making Plans

"I can't believe that they did that," Jérôme Boateng stated shaking his head and staring at the pictures that had been taken of Manuel's wife, he couldn't believe that the media had sunken so low that they would do such a thing. 

To ambush someone with a child like that was beyond scary and none of them liked to think that this could happen especially when they were away from their families. 

Manuel paced about his hotel room, he had been so worried when he had seen what had happened and he had tried call Charlene several times to make sure that they were okay but he hadn't been able to get through to her yet. 

It disgusted him that the press had been deliberately waiting for her and Abigail to ambush them in such a way; they had clearly frightened the little girl with the actions. 

Manuel didn't know how he could make this right, he hated being in France when things happened to his family and there was nothing that he could do about the situation. 

"Are Charlene and Abigail, okay?" Thomas Müller asked, he couldn't imagine what was going on inside of Manuel's head right now and he didn't blame his friend for being distracted. 

It had been a horrible thing for anyone to do especially with an innocent child involved, it wasn't like Abigail had been brought up in the spotlight; this was her first experience of such a thing. 

Most of the team had been surprised to learn what was going on with Abigail and they found it sweet that Charlene had agreed to take the little girl in while they waited to see if any family could be found.

"I can't get a hold of her," Manuel muttered shaking his head, he wasn't surprised that Charlene hadn't called him back yet when she had a frightened child to deal with. 

Poor Abigail wouldn't understand what had just happened and why so many people had surged around them to speak to Charlene; it would have been unsettling and scary to her even without considering her past. 

The two men stared at Manuel, they doubted that it would be long before something happened and they could only hope that everything was okay back in Munich right now.

***

"I am so sorry about all of this," Charlene said letting Sharon and Karen into her home, the women had come to see them as soon as they could and they had both been horrified when they had seen what the press had done. 

It scared Charlene that people had been so willing to sell such a story about her without even realising what sort of affect that could have on the child that was currently in her care. 

Abigail had refused to leave the house after what had happened, it had scared the hell out of her that people had just crowded them and had screamed questions at them for no reason. 

"It's not your fault," Sharon reassured softly, they had planned for when this would happen but she had thought that they would have a little while longer before the news broke in such a way. 

Charlene had no reason to feel guilty, it wasn't like she had been the one that had done this; she had just been trying to get to her car after work when they had been hounded by the press. 

The three of them settled down in the kitchen and Charlene hoped that this wasn't going to affect things; she felt horrible for what had happened yesterday and she was hopeful that they could come to some sort of agreement. 

There was nothing that they could do now that this had happened and Charlene couldn't imagine what social services would do now; she hoped that Abigail wouldn't be taken away because of this. 

Charlene hated to admit it but already she had grown very attached to Abigail which was only going to end in heartbreak when social services figured out what was going to happen to the little girl.