Butterfly Effect

7: Yes, I want to

Carina's Pov

I was frozen and my heart was beating way too fast in my chest.
"Can you..." I swallowed the tears, but they kept coming from my eyes "Can you say that again?".
Maya nodded with a wide smile on her face, trying to kiss my shaky hand.
"Hailee is your daughter. You've found her. You've found Benedetta" she said and I threw myself into her arms, sobbing my heart out.
"My babygirl" I cried out against her chest while she held me close to the beating sound of her heart, rubbing my back in a comforting gesture.
"yes... It's your babygirl. It's Benedetta" she whispered in my ear, but at the exact same moment the sound of my phone told me that they were paging me.
"Child protective services is here for Hailee, I have to go" I said, standing up with Maya right behind me.
I looked for the last time at those candles that were burning as a sign of hope and love, thanking God for the second chance that he gave me with my daughter. In the corridor I looked at my wife and kissed her with all of my love and passion, and when we reluctantly separated from that kiss, I let her dry my tears with her fingertips.
"Do you want to come and see her too? When she was at the station she trusted you..." I asked and she nodded slightly.
We walked hand in hand toward my daughter, and I was trying to gain confidence from my wife's support, as I always did in difficult situations. She was my rock, and she's been it since Andrea's death.
Outside of Hailee's room I saw Jo explaining what had happened to Miss Sanderson, the same social worker that had been to the station the first time that we saw Hailee, and without even acknowledging her, I entered the small hospital room with Maya.
Hailee was half asleep on the bed and for the first time I looked at her knowing that she was my child. Her wavy brown hair was so similar to mine, exactly like almost every facial figure except for the shape of the eyes...
She was absolutely gorgeous, but what captured me was her strength. Thinking about what she had to go through gave me chills. I did this to her. That was all my fault.
I swallowed my guilt and I took Maya's hand into mine as a reminder that I wasn't alone in all of this. She was there with me...
"Hi Bambina, how are you feeling?" I asked and she smiled at me.
"Hi Carina, hi Maya" she said "I don't know how I feel... Physically I'm fine, just bruised. Mentally I have no idea".
"You don't have to be okay right away, and it's okay if you don't know how to feel... We will be here for you if you want" Maya jumped in the conversation, knowing that I didn't know how to say what I wanted to say. Seeing her like this with Benedetta made my heart warmer. I could say that I fell in love with her all over again.
"Thank you" she whispered and Maya squeezed my hand with a mix of confused emotions that I wasn't able to figure out.
In that moment Miss Sanderson and Jo stepped in the room, and Hailee tensed up instantly. I figured out that she hated that woman as much as I did, and, just like me, she wasn't really good at hiding it.
"What- what is she doing here?" she asked with her gorgeous eyes full of fear.
"I'm your social worker Hailee, I have to come if you are in the hospital" the woman answered annoyed "I came because we have to take you to a new foster home as soon as they discharge you".
Hailee looked every second more scared than the one before, and she was avoiding everyone's eye contact.
"They are good people and they already have a seventeen years old son that can't wait to meet you" Miss Sanderson replied and Hailee froze. She was terrified, and for the first time since that woman came into her room, she lifted her eyes from the duvet into ours, begging us to help her somehow.
"No" she exclaimed "I don't... I don't wanna go there".
"You don't have an alternative Hailee. It's rare enough that someone would want a teenager, so now don't be a brat and be grateful that they want to take someone like you into their home".
I wanted to scream against that woman that we would take her in, but I couldn't do that to Maya, not after our discussion in the chapel, and now I felt like my heart was broken into two pieces.
I looked at Maya's complex expression, unable to figure out what was going on inside her head.
"Please? don't let me go there..." she begged again.
The sound of her crying voice was the only one in the room, and my heart was shattered because of the pain that I was feeling. I couldn't let her go again... I wouldn't be able to survive it. So I tried to speak and fight for my daughter, but my voice was dying in my throat and burning tears were running down my face.
"She can come home with us" Maya said out of the blue and my heart shut down completely. What!?

Maya's Pov

I didn't know what to do.
I could clearly see that Carina wanted to do something for her but didn't know how to without breaking everything that she said in the chapel. She didn't have the words to do what she wanted to do, and it was my fault...
I was so scared to fuck everything up, but I've never stopped to think about the fact that she was just a kid that needed love and protection like any other kid, teeneager or toddler. She was the scared one, not me. Also, Hailee wasn't just a normal kid. She was Benedetta... She was Carina's daughter and she was my... Stepdaughter? I didn't know...
"She can come home with us" I said and everyone looked at me confused.
"What?" the social worker and Hailee said at the same time with two completely different tones, while my wife was staring at me speechless.
"We both have stable jobs and a good income, I'm a trained paramedic and my wife is a doctor so, healthwise, she would be fine... I took a deep breath "We also desperately want a family and I know that we can give her the love, the stability and the protection that she deserves".
Carina looked at me with a wide smile and the same sparkle in her eyes that I saw the night we got married.
"It's not that simple" the social worker said "Neither one of you has a foster license".
"You can give them a temporary one for now. They did it for me when I adopted my daughter Luna" Jo exclaimed and I smiled at her, really glad that my wife had such amazing friends.
Miss Sanderson became white as a ghost at that, and we all looked at her, waiting to hear what was going to say next.
"It's the girl's choice" she blurted out after a while, probably thinking that Hailee would refuse to come home with us and complain about it like she did for the other foster family. I slowly started to realize that all of this was because Carina and I were two women...
"Okay wow... Now this is my choice? And before? Why wasn't it my choice before?" Hailee asked sarcastically and I could see Carina in her eyes. She had the same fire that was burning in her beautiful gaze.
"Yes Hailee, it's your choice..." Miss Sanderson answered "You can decide if you want to live with those two... Two women...".
Hailee looked at us with expectation in her eyes, smiling widely "Do you really want to do it?" she asked.
Carina was still at a loss of words, and she looked at me with love in her eyes. I couldn't really understand what was going on in her mind, but I could easily tell that she was incredibly happy just by her body language.
"We would love nothing more Hailee" I answered softly, grabbing Carina's hand. It was my simple way to reassure her that this was really happening and that her daughter was, hopefully, going to come home with us.
"So, what's your choice?" the social worker asked, annoyed at the scene.
"Yes, I want to live with them" Hailee answered and I felt Carina's knees give up, so I let her fall into me, managing to keep her up on her feet. I was going to be her stable point in that moment, because I knew that she needed me to.
"Fine" Miss Sanderson said "I'm going to send you her file and the temporary foster license in an email. We can also decide the date for the first home visit" and with that she left.
Jo excused herself, and I realized in that moment what I had just done... I was a... Mom? A stepmom? To be honest I was so happy that I didn't even care. She was with us and she was safe now, the rest didn't matter.
Suddenly Carina put more of her weight on me as she started to cry her eyes out, sobbing so hard that I was scared she was going to struggle to breathe.
I knew her well enough to understand that this was a cry of relief, not sadness, but at that reaction Hailee started to blame herself, thinking that it was her fault. God, she was so similar to her mother...
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I don't have to stay with you if you don't want me to. I can be on my own, it's not a problem. I'm sorry" she mumbled and at the sound of those words Carina started to calm down. Her sobs turned into whimpers...
"I want you with us Bambina" Carina admitted "I'm sorry if I let you think that I don't. I promise you, that these are tears of happiness, okay?".
Hailee was still unsure of my wife's reaction, but when she looked at me I slowly nodded and her whole body relaxed.
"Okay. I believe you" she whispered.
"I can't wait for you to come home..." I said, and looking at her face glowing with joy, I realized that I had just made the right choice.

A.N. I have to admit that I wanted to let you wait a little bit longer for this chapter, but then you wouldn't have had any more updates because my friends would have killed me (Vi voglio bene ragazze🥰), so here it is. As always let me know your opinions on this.