All by Chance {Brollins}

/ Chapter 15 \

"Colby? Is everything okay?" Rebecca walked into his house and closed the door quietly. "There are these crazy cop cars outside..."

"You must be Miss Quin." A tall and hefty-looking man walked over to her. "Both you and Colby Lopez are under investigation for suspected child abuse."

"I'm sorry, what?!" Rebecca was so shocked she let out a laugh before stiffening up. "Where'd you hear this from? It was Sarah, wasn't it?"

"It was Sarah." She heard Colby speak up from what sounded like the kitchen, and she immediately walked past the officer and made her way to him.

"What the hell is going on?" She whispered the second he got within arms reach, and she instantly hugged him. "Where's Danielle?"

"Don't worry. She's asleep." He nodded and rubbed her back, trying to soothe her but also his own nerves.

"We have a professional investigator on his way to question the both of you." A different short and wide cop made his presence known, and the two of them faced him.

"Sir, with all due respect, this makes no sense." Rebecca spoke up with a shake of her head. "Colby wouldn't dream of hurting his baby ever. And I'm not even her mother."

"The accusation was made against both of you." His tone was dismissive, and Colby could feel the anger radiating off of Rebecca.

"We've got nothing to worry about. It's okay." He whispered into her ear, keeping his hands on her shoulders as she leaned back against him.

The moment the investigator entered the house, the cops searched and scanned the rooms for anything suspicious.

"All clear." They came down the stairs and went to make some calls.

The investigator adjusted his glasses before speaking, skipping casualties. "Mr. Lopez, is there a private room I can use to conduct my investigations?"

"Yeah." Colby nodded, "First room upstairs on your left."

"Perfect." He started to move towards the stairs. "I'll need you to be up there, alone, in five minutes."

Colby nodded and turned Rebecca around so they were facing each other. "Don't worry. It'll be fine."

Rebecca watched Colby make his way to his office, and she let out a shaky breath. Colby walked into his rarely used office and saw the interviewer with a file set out in front of him.

"Do you have Danielle's birth certificate and medical records with you today?" Colby didn't even get a chance to sit down before the interviewer was already beginning.

"Uh, yeah." He nodded, caught off guard. "I'll grab them."

He went through his file drawer that stood in the same room as the office, pulling out Danielle's large and hefty file. Colby knew he didn't need anything other than what he asked, but he wanted this to go as quickly and smoothly as possible, so he grabbed the whole thing.

He placed it on the desk, "Okay, Mr. Lopez, I need you to give me an overview of your history with Danielle."

"Okay, well... after work one day, I came home, and I found her in a car seat on my front step." Colby explained, "She was tiny and shivering, and there was a small stack of paper underneath the seat, which were her birth certificate and medical reports. I don't know why or who left her, but she was there... and I couldn't leave her."

The interviewer quickly jotted down things and skimmed files as Colby continued. "I brought her to the hospital, and they did tests and filled out forms. I was going to leave, but they went on to tell me she had no family on record. They checked the records I was given and gave them an all-clear."

He tapped his finger on his thigh, "They told me they were going to put her up for adoption, so I signed the papers. They questioned me and looked at my records for a few weeks."

Colby smiled slightly as he reminisced, "And eventually, I was granted guardianship, and I became her adoptive father. But she's my baby. She's no different than a biological child. I couldn't leave her, so I didn't."

After the overview, Colby and the interviewer got into the nitty-gritty of dates and medical record statistics, as well as her basic birth information that he had. He asked Colby to give him specific information as an extra precaution, but it was as familiar to Colby as the back of his hand, so he wasn't worried whatsoever.

The room was so quiet Colby could hear the interviewer's every breath. "Okay, that'll be all from just you. Why don't you go get Miss Quin so I can conduct her interview."

"Okay." Colby nodded, still not understanding why she needed to get wrapped up in all of this. She didn't need any more stress piled onto her plate, but he also knew she'd never admit that she was starting to feel verklempt with everything.

He walked downstairs and saw her leaning against the counter with her arms crossed. She just stared at the picture on the fridge of Danielle and Colby quietly. Both police officers seemed to be having a discussion with some people on the front porch. So, he walked over to her and just wrapped his arms around her.

"Was everything okay?" Rebecca whispered, trying to hide the concern in her voice.

"I told you not to worry. They aren't taking Danielle from us." He shook his head, his nose brushing against her hair.

She nodded as they separated, and he gently cupped her jaw, running his thumbs over her cheeks. He smiled, and a wave of reassurance washed over Rebecca. Colby leaned in slowly and touched her lips with his so delicately that Rebecca had never experienced anything like the whirl of euphoria it brought before.

He tended to entrap them both in dizzying and heavy kisses, so she was understandably caught off guard. But it relayed Colby's message and helped ground Rebecca as he pulled away. "You're up."