I Want You

Epilogue

Lennon.

6 years later...

"You check it, I can't look." I demand covering my eyes nervously as I push Tayen toward the counter.

My lungs seize as silence fills the room and I bite my lip to focus on something other than the churning in my stomach.

"Aunt Tayen, Adriel pinched me!" A voice calls from the other side of the bathroom door, piercing the silence and easing some of the weight from my shoulders as a smile tilts my lips at the sound of the little girls voice.

"Did not!" Adriel shouts.

My eyes open as Tayen cracks the door and Hazels wide green fill the space. "May I come in?" She whispers.

I smile and give her a nod. "Of course."

Hazel slips inside the bathroom and Tayen locks the door behind her before Adriel can sneak in. Hazel quirks a brow, her green eyes flicking back and forth between Tayen and I before they land on the counter.

"What's going on?" She asks and snatches the pregnancy test up before we can react. "Oh, is this why you cried when I told you I ate the last of the granola yesterday? My bio mom was pregnant the last time I was with her and she cried over everything."

She hands me the test and I blink down at the two lines there and then back at Hazel. We adopted her ten months ago when she came into the pediatrician office where Xan is doing his residency. He had only been there for two weeks when he came home telling me about this funny little girl that reminded him of me.

He couldn't tell me anything that was going on with her medically but that he couldn't stop thinking about her and her situation. Over dinner one night he brought up the idea of adoption. I can still remember the exact look on his face, the sadness in his eyes over the little girls situation and the way he expressed his need for helping her. The answer was yes before he'd even asked.

We got in contact with her case manager and went through various evaluations. When we learned about Hazels past I couldn't believe anyone could allow a child to live like she had. She was severely neglected as a baby and toddler and had been in and out of the system since she was two. After the last time a neighbor found Hazel wandering around the street in dirty clothes, no shoes, and matted hair her moms rights had finally been terminated and she ended up in jail for drug charges.

The first time I got to meet Hazel and she looked up at me with her big green eyes I felt the same need as Xan had to give her everything she deserved. She hid her pain behind jokes and smiles, anything that could mask her real feelings but you could still see it there in her emerald eyes. It took her months before she was comfortable showing her emotions in front of us. The first time she cried, I cried with her. She goes to therapy twice a week and now that she's been with us for almost a year she seems genuinely happy.

"Are you okay with this?" I ask Hazel nervously.

I hadn't been trying to get pregnant, Xan is only in his first year of residency and we had actually agreed we would probably stick to adoption when we were ready for another child after adopting Hazel, it just seemed to fit us and there were so many kids that needed homes.

I missed my period and I've been pretty moody but even then I was in disbelief. I'd convinced myself I couldn't be pregnant because my birth control pill was the only thing in my life I'd ever kept up with. Tayen talked me into taking a test. She had been in denial with her pregnancy with Adriel too. We were seniors in college when she stared in disbelief at the positive pregnancy test on our shared bathroom counter one evening after class. I thought she was going to pass out.