adopted by sandra bullock (and her gf cate blanchett)

chapter 14

sandy led the kids up the grand staircase to the second floor of her home.

at the top of the staircase there was a hallway leading straight ahead, with a large window at the end of it that oversaw the beautiful backyard.

sandy explained to dylan and dani that there were four rooms off of that hallway - all guest bedrooms.

the hallway to the left of the staircase led to another set of stairs leading to the third floor, which housed four more guest rooms as well as a bunch of empty space that sandy was contemplating turning into a game room for the kids, if all turned out well.

sandy was ashamed to admit that though she'd lived in this house for three years, much of the space was empty or had just an armchair and bookshelf to occupy the whole room. her love for real estate and interior decorating caused her to buy the exorbitant 13,000 square feet mansion, despite the fact that she lived alone.

sandy loved to host parties, and all her friends complimented the coziness and welcoming feeling of her home, but most parties didn't branch above the basement and first floor.

also on the left wing of the second floor, before the staircase, was sandy's massive master bedroom.

cate had been staying with her the past week, which made the king sized bed much less lonely.

sandy pointed out these various areas of the second floor before leading dylan and dani down the hallway to the right.

in the right hand wing, there were four more guest bedrooms, two of which were now to be dylan and dani's.

both rooms were on the side of the hallway facing the back of the house, so they each had a balcony that looked over the backyard. each room had its own private bathroom as well.

dani was in shock.

this time last week her and dylan were sleeping on a queen mattress on the floor of max's disgusting apartment.

dylan didn't hesitate to run into the room on the right, leaving dani to enter the room on the left.

"wow" dani exclaimed softly as she looked around the room.

there was a set of double glass doors leading to a balcony, a walk in closet bigger than the entire room dani and dylan had shared previously, and an adjacent bathroom.

the entire room, closet, and bathroom had white marble floors and white walls.

there was a queen sized bed with a white comforter, with a small bedside table on each side of it.

also in the room was a dresser with a mirror on it and a small desks with some shelves above it.

there was simple decorations in the room that made it clear it was a guest bedroom, a small vase of flowers on the desk and towels folded on the end of the bed.

dani exited the room and ran to dylan's at the same time that he ran to hers, nearly colliding into each other in the hallway.

sandy giggled slightly at watching their near collision and seeing their excitement about the rooms.

once dani had determined that dylan's room was the same as hers just with the furniture on the opposite sides of the room, she exited to go back to sandy in the hallway.

"this is incredible, i've never been in a room this nice, let alone a house this nice!"

dylan joined her a second later, "yeah this is insane, thank you so much!"

dylan wrapped his arms around sandy in a big hug, taking her by surprise.

"hey, don't leave me out!" dani fake pouted, then lifting up sandy's arm to join them in their hug.

sandy was overcome with emotion, both from the affection from the kids but also because of their gratitude to her.

they were constantly thanking her and being amazed at her basic displays of kindness.

sandy wanted to make sure not only that she made up for their years of neglect, but that she treated them so well that they would settle for nothing less.

"sandy are you...crying?" dylan interrupted her thoughts.

sandy wiped her tears away hastily, unaware of how emotional she had become.

dani darted out of her arms quickly, almost as if she was embarrassed of her outburst of affection.

dylan, however, stayed close to sandy with her one arm wrapped around his shoulder.

he seemed reluctant to want to leave her side.

sandy squeezed him tightly before letting him go, but continued to hold his hand.

"i'm just...i'm so grateful to have you two here. after all this time. it makes me a bit emotional!" sandy laughed off the last part of her sentence.

"aww we're so grateful for you! we'd probably be dead by now honestly..." dylan trailed off after receiving a glare from his sister.

if there was one thing dani hated, it was being indebted to people, but even she could admit that she owed a lot to sandy.

"yeah," dani started begrudgingly, "it was pretty cool of you to do this for us."

sandy gave dani a fond look, knowing that wasn't exactly easy for her.

"why don't you two shower, there should be towels and products in the room, and then we can go get your stuff."

dylan and dani left to go to their respective rooms.

sandy headed to her own room to take a shower herself.

she entered her bathroom and immediately turned the shower on to let the hot water heat up, then went out to her bedroom to lay out her clothes for after her shower.

she discarded the days clothes, or really the past three days clothes into her hamper, and returned to the bathroom.

while most of the houses flooring consisted of white marble, sandy's room and bathroom were a sleek black marble.

the shower in her bathroom took up at least a quarter of the room, even having its own bench in the shower.

it had glass walls and door, which fogged up with steam from the piping hot shower.

sandy connected her phone to the bluetooth speakers in the walls of the shower, putting on her current favorite playlist.

the music started to play softly, not wanting to disturb the rest of the house, although she knew it wouldn't matter because all the bedroom walls were soundproof.

she picked out her favorite lavender scented products off the shelf as she stepped in the shower, knowing cate also loved that scent on her.