Soulmate

Chapter 20

Legally, a paternity test was needed to get joint custody. There was no problem with that; they took a sample of Kevin's and Lizzie's saliva and sent it to a lab. A week later they had the results; indeed, Kevin was Lizzie's father, and he was legally recognized as so. Catherine had no problem with Lizzie changing her last name to Richardson-McNamara. They also had no trouble agreeing on the terms of joint custody: Lizzie would spend a week with each of her parents. That, unless either parent had commitments that required them to be away from LA, in which case the other parent would care for Lizzie. Finally, when Lizzie was with either parent, the other could visit and spend time with her.

Kevin quickly adapted to the role of parent. It was not surprising, as he had always been very responsible, and he was also very good with children. Lizzie could attest to that: From the very first moment, the two of them just clicked. Obviously, Lizzie still loved Catherine dearly. She was her mother and had cared for her all her life, but she really liked Kevin. She liked the steadiness of his gaze, the serenity of his voice, and most of all, that he was tall and strong enough to carry her on his shoulders everywhere.

Kevin's house was huge, and he had several guest rooms. One of those rooms became Lizzie's room. And you may be wondering: what did Sophie have to say about all this? The truth is, when Kevin told her, she was shocked. But after several hours of conversation and convincing from Kevin, Sophie gave in to the idea of Lizzie living with them. After all, she had the right to see her father. What she wasn't so happy about was the close relationship Catherine and Kevin were going to have, but Kevin swore and re-swore to her that his relationship with his ex was not going to go beyond what it was: his ex and the mother of his daughter, period.

Sophie hadn't been the only one shocked. When Kevin told management about the whole thing, they almost panicked. They insisted that it was crucial to his reputation as a "hot-ass boybander" (yes, that was the term they used) that no one knew about it. If fans found it hard to accept when one of their idols had a girlfriend, imagine if they had kids....

And Catherine, she felt strange. She had rather mixed feelings. She wasn't used to "sharing" Lizzie with anyone else, and she wasn't able to get used to the silence that reigned in her house when Lizzie was gone. It was also still hard for her to have to see Kevin so often. After all, he was still her ex. But as Greta had advised her, "You have to put aside everything that happened between you two, everything you two were. It's not easy, but you have to try. Don't see him as your ex, as the guy who broke your heart. See him as the father of your daughter, and that's it." So when Kevin and Catherine got together, they barely spoke to each other and focused on their daughter.

But there was a good side to all this: Lizzie was very happy. She had always been a very happy child, but lately she was...radiant of joy. It was easy to see how happy Lizzie was to have her family complete; a father and a mother. And nothing made Catherine happier than seeing Lizzie happy.

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 Hi! I'm just writing to apologize for this chapter (again). It's quite short (I always try to keep the chapters at least 1000 words) and not too good. This is because there was some kind of "hole" in the story, that is, I didn't know well how to link what has happened before and what I want to happen next.

I will try to make the next chapters longer and of higher quality.I take this opportunity to remind you how useful it would be for me if you would comment your thoughts about the story.

Bye!