A couple of days later, Friday 24th July.
After giving the maid our breakfast order I climb out of bed. I have a quick shower and then get dressed. I put on some light blue washed out high waisted denim shorts. I then blow dry and straighten my hair.
I head into my room to see Alannah starting to toss and turn. I rush to her side and hold her hand. I then stroke the strands of hair out of her face.
"Bub it's time to wake up." I say trying to wake her up.
She sits up and yawns. I smile at her and kiss her cheek which makes her smile.
"Whenever you're ready we'll go down for breakfast." I say putting youtube on my laptop for her to watch.
We don't have breakfast or dinner with everyone else. Alannah doesn't feel comfortable around anyone in this house other than me and Jax.
Jax and I still need to talk about it because I don't know what the next step from here is.
Jax is leaving this evening. We still need to sort out things like Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays everything like that. I need to be here, I have people now and I can't go back to New York. We have so much to talk about and very little time to talk about it.
Alannah still hasn't really spoke about the events that occurred, but it didn't bother me. Obviously I wanted her to talk to me about it, but it's only been five days.
"I'm ready for breakfast now." Alannah says as her stomach growls making me smile softly at her. Once I help her out of bed I take her hand and head downstairs to the dinning room.
We go into the dinning room and to no surprise, it was empty.
Alannah eats her bagel and then some fruit whilst I drink some coffee and I eat a bit of my bagel.
After breakfast I take her back up to my room. She sits at the window seat playing with her stuffed animals whilst I make the bed. After I make the bed, me and Alannah brush our teeth then I wash her face. After I wash her face an idea strikes me.
"Why don't we celebrate your birthday today? We can open all of your toys then we can have lots of fun." I say and Alannah perks up and nods her head quickly.
"Okay then." I say and she nods.
I choose out a mint green vintage ruffle sleeve dress for her. I then brush her hair and use some clips to keep the main strands of hair out of her face.
Now that we were both ready we head into Alannah's room and she looks around at all the presents and her eyes widen.
"Wow." She says and I nod.
She quickly rushes over and begins to open her presents.
After she opened them she waddles over to me with wide arms signalling for me to pick her up. I do so and rest her on my hip.
"Thank you." She says and I smile and kiss her forehead.
Alannah goes and plays with her new toys whilst I clean up the mess that was made from her opening all her presents.
"Mama will we ever go back to our house?" Alannah says and I look up at her confused.
"What in New York?" I ask and she shakes her head no.
"Where we live with James." She says. She means our apartment in LA.
"Maybe bub, I need to talk to vovô." I say and she nods.
After cleaning her room up I go into my room to grab my phone when I see Carter stood in there.
"Um I need to talk to you." Carter says and I glance into Alannah's room and see her playing with her toys calmly.
"Alright make it quick." I say and he sighs.
"Its been a week since you came to the warehouse. You're setting out the wrong impression, you need to come to the warehouse." Carter says and I furrow my eyebrows.
"Carter I can't." I say and he sighs.
"You said you wanted to be by my side and help me. You signed the paper Lara, you have to do it." He says and I sigh.
"Yes I will but I have no one to watch Alannah." I say and he furrows his eyebrows.
"I'll watch her." He says and starts to head towards her room.
"No Carter stop it." I say but I then get cut off by Alannah crying.
I push past him and go and pick her up to comfort her.
"Carter just go please, we'll talk later." I say and he sighs.
"Lara this is your duty." He says and I nod.
"I know that. I just need Alannah to get better." I say and he sighs.
"I'm not ill." Alannah says and I nod and wipe away her tears.
"She doesn't settle for anyone and I can't take her there Carter, I won't." I say and he just rolls his eyes.
"She settles for Jax doesn't she, ask him." Carter says and I sigh.
"I'll do it." Jax says and we look over to the door. He just pops up everywhere doesn't he.
"Jax." I say softly but he doesn't say anything just walks towards us with his arms open.
Alannah goes into his arms straight away and Carter just sighs.
"We'll expect a visit off of you at some point today." Carter says and I nod and run a tired hand down my face.
Jax looked st me concerned but I just look at Alannah.
"I need to get ready, you'll be good for Jax won't you." I say and she nods. I kiss her forehead then head to my closet.
I pick out a black and white horizontal strip suit. I put on a plain black strapless body suit and then the suit jacket on. I put a belt on and then do my makeup.
"I heard your coming to the warehouse today." Dad says and I turn to look at him and smile softly.
"I am." I say and he nods.
"Don't let Carter's anger fear you." Dad says and I scoff.
"Carter doesn't scare me. Annoys me yes, but he doesn't scare me." I say and he smiles.
"I actually wanted to ask you something." I say and he looks at me curiously.
"I was wondering if I could go back to LA for a couple of weeks." I say and he looks at me confused again.
"I'm stressed. So much has gone on in the past month and I just need to get back to LA. Alannah is scared of everyone here, I can't talk to her here. I need to get her alone and talk to her and help her dad. She's so scared and I'm worried for her. Jax is the only person she'll talk to other than me and with me being the whole right hand thing it isnt going to work. Jax has to go back to New York so he can't be here every time I have to go to a meeting. I haven't spoke to James since this all started and I'm lost dad." I admit and he nods.
"I understand amor, I'll talk to Marco and have things set for your departure." He says and I smile.
"Thank you." I say and stand up and hug him before be leaves.
Once I finished with my natural makeup I put on my black block heels then spray some perfume.
I head into Alannah's room to see her showing Jax her presents.
"Mama." She shouts making Jax look up. I go over to her and kneel down in front of her.
"You look so pretty." She says kissing my cheek making me smile.
"Look I need to go to a meeting okay. But Jax is going to take care of you and I promise." I say and she nods.
"You're going to come back right?" She asks and I nod whilst smiling.
"I will never ever leave you again." I say and she smiles softly.
"I love you." I say and kiss her forehead.
"I love you too." She says and I smile and take a deep breath before standing up and heading out.
I grab my bag and then head downstairs and out the front where I was met by a car and my driver Mario.
Once I get to the warehouse Mario opens the door me which I thank him for and head in. It was extremely quite and no one was around which meant that they had to be in a meeting.
I head towards the conference room and then open the door. Every man in that room turned to look at me and stood as I took a step in.
I walk down the aisle in the middle of the room to see Carter, Marco and dad all stood as well. Carter was sort of smiling, he looked relieved that I was here. I take a seat next to Carter and then the three men sit down before signalling for everyone else to sit down.
"Glad you could make it." Carter whispers and I smile.
"What did I miss?" I ask and he hands me a file which I flick through whilst Marco talks about the amount of Russians that have been seen in Brazil the past three days.
"Isso será tudo." Marco says taking a seat (that will be all). "não, não vai ficar sentado." I say standing up gaining every single persons attention (no it won't, stay seated).
"What are you doing?" Carter whispers. "Watch." I say and he sighs.
"Como você sabe, minha filha voltou com segurança." I say standing up correctly (as you may know my daughter was returned safely).
"Éramos apenas eu e minha filha por três anos. eu não sei mais nada. mas não estou aqui parado na frente de todos vocês. vocês também são minha prioridade agora. no entanto, ela está sofrendo agora e precisa estar lá para ela.eu não me esqueci de nenhum de vocês. Eu ainda vou liderar ao lado de Carter comprar agora eu preciso estar lá para ela porque ela não tem mais ninguém. não há necessidade de se preocupar, eu prometo." I say.
(It was only me and my daughter for three years. I don't know anything else. but not im here standing infront of you all. You're all my priority as well now. However she is suffering now and need to be there for her. I have not forgotten about any of you. Im still going to lead beside Carter buy right now I need to be there for her because she doesn't have anyone else. There is no need to worry at all, I promise.)
I finish off my little speak before we all leave and head into the office.
"You can go to LA Lara." Marco says and I smile.
"You'll leave tomorrow." He says and I thank him.
"I'm going to head back now though. Keep me in the loop though, these are my people too now. I'll speak to them on the way out." I say and they nod.
"Wait Lara." Marco says as I get to the door making me spin on my heels.
"Friday 25th of September, you'll both take over officially." He says and I smile and nod.
And then I do exactly that. I spoke to lots of people on the way out and thanked them for their patience with me.
Once I get home I head straight to my room. I take my heels off and head into Alannah's room. "Mom." Alannah squeals as soon as I open the door. She rushes over to me and I pick her up and hug her.
"How about the three of us go put for dinner tonight to celebrate your birthday and to say goodbye to Jax." I say and she nods her head.
"Okay I'll make reservations in a bit." I say and she smiles and starts playing with my hair.
"Are you tired?" I ask and she nods.
I place her down in her bed and tuck her in. Jax sits beside me and we kiss her forehead.
"Go to sleep bub." I say and she could hardly keep her eyes open anymore.
"Stay holding her hand." I say and he looks at me confused. I head into our closet and start packing some summer outfits. We have quite a few outfits already at our apartment but right now there are still a few things that need to be packed. I pack both of our suitcases and leave then in the closet before heading into Alannah's room.
I sit beside Jax and book a table for a restaurant not too far from here.
"How did the meeting go?" He asks and I nod my head softly.
"It was good." I say and he smiles softly.
I'm not used to seeing him so soft, maybe its because he's holding Alannah's hand. He did say he was more rational in Alannah's bedroom around ber stuff.
When Alannah wakes up we play around her room for a while till I decide to get ready.
I just sorted out my hair and got dressed into a less office type outfit then went over my hair and makeup slightly.
"You ready?" I ask Alannah and she nods.
I take Alannah's hand and we head downstairs where we meet Jax then head to the restaurant.
After ordering food I look over to the opposite side of the table at Jax.
"We have some news to tell you." I say and she looks up at me confused.
"What is it?" Alannah asks and I glance at Jax and smile.
"When you were away, me and Jax decided to give you some good news to come back too." I say and she looks at me confused.
"Just tell me." She says impatiently making us both laugh.
"Me and Jax adopted you. We're legally your parents." I say and her eyes widen.
"So you're really my mom and Jax is really my dad." She asks and looks between me and Jax. Jax nods his head and smiles at her whilst making her eyes well up.
She jumps into my arms and gives me the biggest hug.
"I love you bub." I say and kiss her cheek. She pulls away from the hug and rushed round the table to greet Jax the same way.
"I can call you dad now." She says and he nods.
"Yes you can." He confirms.
She spent the rest of dinner with a smile on a face, especially after telling her about us going to La tomorrow.
After paying for dinner we head out where we see two cars waiting for us. I look over at Jax sadly and he just sighs.
"Jax do you have to leave?" Alannah asks and Jax nods.
"I'm sorry narna." He says and she quickly throws herself into his arms.
She hugged him all the way to the cars where I began to sigh.
"Bub we're leaving tomorrow, remember? Jax can't come to LA with us, but we'll see him soon." I say and she shakes her head no.
It got to the point where I had to literally pry Alannah out of Jax's arms.
"I'll call you later." Jax says and kisses her cheek.
"Bye dad." She says which sends butterflies to my stomach. This is exactly what I wanted, except Jax is going back to New York.