Adopted by Nian

Chapter 1

(Ian's POV)

"Ian...? IAN!"

"What?" I snap out of my dazed state.

Nina was snapping her fingers in front of me and I pushed them away.

"Are you okay?" Nina asks in concern.

We were in her make-up room memorizing our scripts for today and I dozed off into space.

"Yeah... I'm just thinking." I say and shake my head to clear it.

"About what?" Nina says looking at me with her soft, brown eyes.

I hesitate for a moment before answering, "What do you think if I adopted a child?"

Nina suddenly chokes on the gum she was chewing and I roll my eyes. After accidentally swallowing her gum, she looked at me incredulously.

"You barely have time for yourself! What makes you think you have time for a kid?" Nina asks expectantly.

"I know--" I start but Nina cuts me off.

"This isn't a dog we're talking about, it's a kid. A kid needs time, love, care, education." She started counting it out with her fingers and I waited for her to finish.

"I want to settle down, Nina, I think a kid will help." I say calmly and Nina scowls at me.

"Fine, do whatever you want as always." Nina says absently and I get up to leave.

"This is one of the reasons we broke up." I heard her say as I left the room.

***

"She has fine, messy brown hair and eyes like mine and she's this tall." I describe for the hundredth time at a different orphanage.

I had probably been to all the orphanages in Atlanta, Georgia and I still didn't have any luck at finding Kylie. I was about to give up when the secretary, named Daisy, gave me a "You're nuts" look.

"I'll line the girls up and see if you recognize any of them, sir." She says and storms away from her desk. She came back five minutes later and motioned me to follow her.

She led me to a door that opened into a large classroom that was apparently the girl's playroom. There were about thirty of them and they all stopped to stare at me.

"See if you can find her." Daisy says and motions me to walk into the room.

I smile at the girls as I passed them, I analyzed the whole room looking for Kylie but I couldn't seem to find her.

"Please be here..." I say to myself as I kept looking, scrutinizing every girl's face.

I stop when I see a little girl sitting crossed leg in the far corner of the playroom. She was alone and she seemed to be coloring a book with broken crayons. I walk up to her, kneel down, and tap her shoulder. She looks up to me and gaped like a goldfish.

I grin from ear to ear. Here she was, the little girl with the messy brown hair, a shirt that was two sizes too large for her, dirty beat up converse, scrapes that covered her knees and elbow... But she was perfect to me.

"Remember me?" I say softly and she manages to nod.

"Ian." She simply says and I pull her into a hug, she stiffens but hugs me back.

"C'mon." I hold her tiny hand as we walk towards the door, where Daisy was waiting.

"Her? Kylie is the girl you were looking for?" She asks in disbelief pointing to Kylie who was hiding behind my leg.

"Yes, why?" I ask and raise an eyebrow.

She looks at Kylie and then back at me and shakes her head. "Stay here, Kylie, I have to talk with the kind man in private."

Kylie nods and sits on the floor while Daisy leads me to the end of the hall.

"Is there a problem?" I ask with crossed arms.

"Yes, Kylie, is a little... Slow." She tried to explain. "She's small for her age and she has dyslexia and since she doesn't have a good education she's basically illiterate. She can't stand being around a big group of people and everything scares her."

I lift a hand to stop her. "I don't care. I want her no matter what." I say firmly.

"Well, even if she was normal you still can't adopt her. Two people have to sign the adoption forms." Daisy says and smirks.

What an evil person.

"I'll take care of that." I say and walk back to Kylie who was waiting patiently.

"What happened?" She asks worriedly.

"Nothing... I'll pick you up tomorrow, okay?" I assure her and she nods.

***

The next day...

"Where are we going?" Nina asks as we drove to the orphanage.

"To do me a favor." I say as I parked the car.

"What favor-- No, oh no, I told you yesterday I don't support you on this!" Nina shouts as we got out if the car and she reads the building sign.

"I just want you to meet her, please?" I plead and jut my lip out. She eventually sighs and walks stubbornly inside with me.

Daisy was on the phone this time, she was frowning but it turned into a scowl when she saw me.

"I'll have to call you back." She says and hangs up.

"I come for Kylie's adoption forms, and as you can see I bought my girlfriend." I say with a smirk and give Nina a look when she was about to protest.

"Well, Kylie's at the hospital so come back tomorrow." Daisy says and my smirk was gone and it was now a scowl.

"What happened to her?" I growl.

"Some of the other girls accidentally stepped on her wrist and she broke it." Daisy says boringly.

"Just give me the adoption forms." I spat and I snatched them out of her hands.

I drove to the hospital in silence and when I got to the ER I recognized Kylie's guardian, Stacy, flirting with a doctor.

"Hey! Where's Kylie?" I ask her and she point annoyingly to a cot that was surrounded by nurses and doctors.

I push through and see Kylie sobbing desperately in pain as the doctor tried to check her purple, swelling wrist that was limp. She couldn't stay still as she fought and thrashed on the bed as the nurses tried to hold her down.

"We're going to have to sedate her." I heard a doctor say.

"No!" I say and they all look at me incredulously. "It's the people, she's claustrophobic."

They move away and I sit down with Kylie. She hugs me when she sees me but doesn't stop sobbing.

"It's okay, I'm here." I soothed her but she started screaming when the doctor grabbed her injured wrist and twisted it back into place.

"Excuse me who are you?"

I look back and see police officers looking from me and back to Nina. Nina suddenly grabbed the adoption forms that were rolled up in my back pockets, snatched the nurse's pen, and signed them.

"We're her parents." She pushed the form at the officer's chest.