Change of Heart (Fostering Love 2)

She laughed a little as she took a step back and ran her hand over her face before giving me a wide smile. Then she turned away and looked around the waiting room, finally coming to a stop when she found the family that had come in an hour after we had.

“Marcus?” she asked, taking a step forward.

“Yeah,” the kid replied, his eyes wide as he and his parents came to their feet.

“Hey, I’m Bethy’s sister, Anita.”

“O-oh,” he stuttered, standing up straighter.

“Everything went really well,” she told him gently as he fidgeted. “Bethy’s asking for you now.”

The kid swallowed, then looked at his parents. At their nod, he raced away.

“Room 422!” Anita called out as he practically ran down the hallway.

“You’re Anita?” the boy’s mother asked quietly, looking intently at Ani.

I took a step forward, but my mom’s hand on my arm stopped me.

“Hi,” Ani said, lifting her hand to shake the mom’s.

“I’m Sue, and this is my husband Richard,” the woman replied, making no move to take Ani’s hand.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Ani replied, dropping her hand back to her side.

“Thank you so much,” the mom whispered, her eyes welling up with tears. “We just—I’m a professor and Richard own his own IT company. We’re just—we’re too old to take care of another baby.”

The dad wrapped his arm around the mom’s shoulders as she sniffled.

“I understand,” Ani said quietly.

My mom passed me and went to Ani’s side. “Hi, I’m Liz, Ani’s mom.”

“Hello,” Sue said. “But I thought—” Her eyes went to Ani.

“My foster mom,” Ani clarified.

“Oh,” Sue breathed.

“We’re big believers in adoption,” my mom said, her implication clear. “It’s really nice to meet you, Sue.”

Sue watched my mom for a long moment, then looked around the room, her eyes stopping on me and then Trevor. When her eyes went back to my mom and Ani, she gave them a tentative smile. That’s when Richard’s shoulders dropped a fraction, and he reached out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Liz and Anita. I’m Richard.”

A few minutes later, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and called my brother as I watched Ani and my mom get to know the baby’s grandparents.

“Hello?” Alex answered gruffly.

“Hey, Ani wanted me to call you—”

“Baby?”

“A girl. Healthy and beautiful,” I answered distractedly as Sue gave Ani a hug.

I pulled the phone away as Alex whooped in my ear.

“Congratulations,” he said happily.

“I’ll tell Ani.”

“Nah, man. That was for you.”

“What?” I asked, irritated that I was talking to him when it looked like Ani was going to head back into her sister’s room.

“I’m telling you congratulations.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

“Nah, man. A little boy? You might have been able to hold out. But a little girl? You’re toast.”

* * *

“Do you think we’ll get to see the baby soon?” Trevor asked over an hour later as he dropped into the seat next to me.

“Don’t know,” I answered, messing with a loose thread on the inseam of my jeans.

“I need to head out soon.”

I nodded. I wasn’t really up for conversation.

Ani seemed happy. She’d been flitting in and out of her sister’s hospital room, coming out to talk to my mom and aunt Ellie before skipping back in to be with her sister and the baby. I wasn’t sure what was taking so long, why we hadn’t been able to see the baby yet, and the longer it went the more nervous I became.

Trevor elbowed me hard in the side, and my head snapped up to see him nodding toward a woman that was walking down the hallway toward us.

“Holy shit,” I muttered as she came closer. Her hair was long and curled, and she had on a pair of the tightest jeans I’d ever seen, but that wasn’t what made my stomach clench.

She looked just like Ani.

She was doing something on her phone, but when she made it to the waiting room, her head came up, and she glanced around. Her face screwed up like she’d smelled something foul, then moved toward where my mom was still sitting with Sue and Richard.

“I’ll knock the bitch out,” Trev said under his breath, scooting forward in his seat.

My stomach rolled as I realized that she wasn’t just getting to the hospital. She had come from Bethy’s room, which meant Ani had been locked away with the woman for hours.

“Hi, I’m Anita and Bethy’s mom, Carol,” Ani’s mom said cheerfully as she got to Sue. “You must be Marcus’s parents.”

“Hello,” Sue said flatly.

“So I think Marcus wants to stay with Bethy, but you guys can head on home if you want,” Carol said, oblivious to Sue’s pinched mouth. “It’s not like he can get her into any more trouble!” Carol laughed, and I saw my mom put a warning hand on Sue’s forearm.

“I think we’ll stay,” Sue said, making Richard nod. He didn’t say a word, but his nostrils were flared as he looked down his nose at Carol.