Adopted by Dan and Phil (editing in process)

11

PHIL'S POV:

"You ready?" I signed to Clara. Dan and I had become quite good at sign language, and although we still needed help from Clara once and a while and we couldn't do it really fast, we could hold a conversation pretty well. All those early morning youtube videos and the class I signed us up for were paying off.

"Almost." she signed back, as she put on the new Kylie lip-kit thing Louise had gotten her.

We were going to dinner with Marcus, Joe, Caspar, Cat, Louise and Zoe, and we were meeting them at the hotel Cat was staying at.

...

"Hi Clara!" Louise and Zoe immediately rushed and hugged her. Louise had her vlogging camera, as did Marcus and Cat.

"I'm sure you all know Clara!" Louise said into her camera, "But if you don't, let me introduce you! This is Dan and Phil's new foster child! Anyway, she's just precious, isn't she?"

Clara blushed and giggled.
We got to the restaurant and had a lovely dinner.
It was really fun and Clara seemed to thoroughly enjoy herself, even if she couldn't keep up with some of the conversation.
Dan and I tried to interpret as much as we could, and Louise and Zoe helped too. People tried to talk slowly for the most part, but we were there when it got too fast to read their lips.

It was super late by the time we got home- about 2 in the morning, and Clara had fallen asleep in the cab, so Dan carried her up to the flat. We tucked her into bed and then said good night ourselves.

                            >•<

CLARA's POV:

I woke up in the middle of the night. Not from a nightmare, but I couldn't get back to sleep. I got up and went to get a glass of water. When I got to to the kitchen I saw Dan sitting on the couch in the lounge.
"What are you doing?" I signed to him.
"Couldn't sleep." He said and motioned for me to sit next to me.

" Do you remember going to the orphanage for the first time?" He asked, signing as many words as he could.

"Yeah, why?" I said back.

"Just wondering." He signed, looking at me.

"You read the papers didn't you. My back story." I said, piecing it together.

"Yeah." He admitted.

"They lied." I said bluntly.

"What do you mean, they lied?" He asked confused.

I sighed, getting ready to say the story that no one but Emily and I knew.
She had told me one time when I had had a sudden outburst of anger towards the surgeons who had performed the surgery on my mom that had killed her.

"My mom didn't die in the surgery." I signed slowly, so that Dan wouldn't miss a single word, " My father was an angry man who took too many drugs and was always drunk.
"He had just had a little run in with the cops and thought that my mother had put them up to it."

I looked at Dan to make sure he understood.
"So that night when he got home, he- he came into the living room where my mother was  and started fighting with her. Things became physical quickly, and because my mom was so weak from the tumor, it was too easy for my dad to go too far. When he threw a candle holder at her, it killed her." 
Dan looked horrified.

"When the police came, he made up the story about the surgery, and for some stupid reason they believed him, until a couple years later when he was caught speeding drunk, a neighbor of ours suddenly came forward, saying that they had seen suspicious actions from my father before. He went on trial and didn't deny anything. The entire truth came out. He had abused both me and my mother and then he killed her. Killed his wife. They took my to the orphanage, sticking with the story about the surgery, probably for my sake, and my father was arrested for  abuse and murder. "

"I'm sorry." Dan signed.

I got up and went to bed.

.............................................................

Oooh THE TRUTH COMES OUT!
Don't worry, the next chapter will be a bit more light hearted:) vote, comment!!!

~ Isabel 💜