Meant to be

The Future

"Mummy?" Turning away from the batter I'd been focusing on in the kitchen I see Callie standing by the bottom of the steps in her lilac silk pyjamas, her hair parted into two braids almost reaching her mid back.

I almost can't believe my baby girl is nine.

She's twirling one of the braids between her fingers, biting her lower lip.

A sign of nerves.

"What's up Baby?" I ask with concern, beckoning her over by patting the top of the kitchen counter.

"I couldn't sleep" she says in a small voice, climbing up onto the counter slouching before I gesture to her to sit up straight.

Wow.

I've really become my mother haven't I?

I guess being a proper adult will do that to you.

"Couldn't sleep because?" I gently pry as I continue to whisk the batter for the practice cake.

"Do you love Persephone and Hermione more because they're your kids?" With worry in her shaky voice it's clear she's fretful for the answer. Putting down the bowl of batter, I hoist myself up on the kitchen counter beside her.

"I love all three of my children equally, did something happen to make you think otherwise?" Now it's my turn to feel worried that I might've failed her as her mother. Placing my arms around her in comfort concentrating on Callie, I'm confused as to why she'd feel that way.

"Sydney Atkinson said her stepmother treats her different because she's not actually her child, I wanted to know if you felt the same way" She rambles in the same endearing nature her daddy does.

"When I held you in my arms for the first time I knew I loved you and I've loved every second watching you grow up Baby. I was there when you were born, there when you laughed for the first time, spoke your first word and took your first steps. You were what made us a family, you will always be our first baby, you're my baby"

"But Sydney said her siblings see her differently because they're half siblings and that's what I am right?"

"Being half siblings mean you share at least twenty five percent of DNA not that they love you half as much. Persephone and Hermione love and adore their big sister, they look up to you for everything!"

"How do you know they're going to love me the same?" Callie asks, not sounding very convinced by my logic and truth.

"Because Aunty Ra-Ra is my half sister, I love her so much that biology doesn't matter. Actually all my siblings are half and that has never mattered to them or to me" I confide, leaving out Leo and I's little prank war.

"Really?" Callie says with bright smile lighting up the rest of her face, realising that Sydney Atkinson might be a fear monger rather than an accurate source.

"Really, when it comes to family, biology isn't everything. I chose to adopt you because I have always felt like your mummy, from the very beginning and I leapt at the chance to make it legal" Once Jodie had relinquished custody she made it sincerely clear that all she wanted was a fresh start.

Not that I could blame her.

Between the custody court case and the trial against Dominic it was understandable that Jodie wanted to shed the skin of her former life and begin a new one. Before leaving for Panama, Jodie made it clear that the last thing we ever had to worry about was her swanning in and out of our lives, it sounds rude but it's the most reassuring thing she'd said in years. Jodie has caused us trouble for years, trouble that neither Mason and I ever wanted to dwell on, if it were up to us we'd never tell Callie about Jodie but her birth certificate doesn't lie and neither do we. From there it only seemed natural to legalise the bond I'd always had and feel with Callie, especially since at the time we were trying to expand the family.