State Of Grace

Chapter 23 - A Place In This World

For the rest of the evening, Gracie was content. She and her family-to-be played board games for hours while talking about how excited they were for Gracie's adoption day. Lilah had already cleared a space on the mantel for a new photo of them all on the day, they had one for all of the kids lined up in complimentary frames. Gracie had admired them for months, the smiles on their faces, the relief in their eyes when they were finally a family was something she'd yearned for for longer than she would ever admit to herself.

"We'll have to get you something new to wear," Stella said, smiling.

"What, like for court?" Gracie asked.

"Yeah, you have to dress nice so the judge can see that you're being taken care of and stuff," Marco said, "I had to wear a shirt and tie." The thought of Marco wearing a suit now was bizarre to Gracie, he was always walking around in baggy basketball shorts, and he rarely had a shirt on at all.

Stella started to get a little too competitive in Monopoly, claiming everyone was cheating, so Lilah suggested that they pack the games away and watch a movie before bed.

"Fine, but I'm not watching any of those action movies, I get enough of that at work," Stella said as they all settled down in the living room.

"I think Gracie should pick the movie this time," Marco said, "I trust her not to pick some sad, boring girly movie where everyone dies in the end," he directed the dig at his twin sister.

"Oh shut up, Marco, you loved The Notebook, you cried!" Maia said.

Gracie was busy digging through a box of DVDs, but she smiled as she imagined Marco, a macho presenting man, shedding a tear at a tragic romance movie. "What about Toy Story 3? I used to love this when I was a kid," she held up the DVD and everyone nodded their head.

"That one will definitely make Marco cry," Danny poked fun at his older brother, who promptly threw a cushion at him.

"Okay settle down, kids," Lilah caught the flying cushion before it could hit Danny.

"Nice catch, Mama, we could use you in goal," Marco joked.

"Quiet, it's starting," Gracie sat in between Danny and Lilah.

The opening music brought her back to the first time she saw this movie. At six years old, before everything went wrong, Gracie's father brought the DVD home one night. She was so happy that she rewatched it every day for months on end.

Now when she looked back at that, she knew he was just trying to keep her occupied while he fell into another depressive episode. Maybe he was just trying to spare her from seeing him at his darkest, but if that was the case, then why did he take his life when he must have known she would be the one to find him? It doesn't get much darker than that.

Hugo left Gracie with a lot of unanswered questions, and as much as she wanted to understand why he did what he did, she knew there was no way she'd get the answers she was looking for, so she did her best not to dwell on it.

After the movie and a few tears from everyone in the family, Gracie went upstairs to call her friends and tell everyone the good news about the adoption. Sarah didn't sound as happy as Gracie had expected, but after all, she knew the truth about Rachel, and she knew that guilt was destroying her best friend. Gracie started to think that telling Sarah was a mistake, after all, she had somewhat of a personal stake in the situation; Riley was her sister too.

Once she'd hung up with Sarah, she clicked on Rachel's contact on her phone, but then she remembered how upset Rachel got when Gracie first brought up adoption, and it was just a pipe dream at that point. If she told her now, it would only upset her further. Instead, she sent Rachel a text to confirm that they'd be meeting in their usual spot after school tomorrow. Elle was the most excited out of all of Gracie's friends, she knew just how much this meant to her.