Adopted by.... 1D?

Chapter 14

The next hour was full of frustration and tears and anger for Madeline-Grace. She couldn’t move her leg no matter how hard she tried. It was annoying. She went from being this girl who played basketball and was always moving to a girl who couldn’t walk.

When they were back in the room, MG sat on the couch with the two men and had her legs on Niall’s lap.

“Something bothering you babe?” Liam asked.

“I’m ready to talk about the orphanage. I mean, if you are ready to listen.”

“Sure, let’s talk.”

“So I got there when I was 4 and I wouldn’t talk to anyone. I didn’t want to get close to anyone only to have them ripped away so fast. No one would adopt me because, on my files, it said I was mute.” She took a deep breath and looked at Liam. He nodded and she went on. “I stayed alone and, when someone reached out to me, I refused. I went to classes and everything, but I never talked and everyone stayed away from me. Amber got hired to help with kids like me and I liked her. A lot. But I didn’t let anyone else know. She finally got me to talk when I was almost 6. I had stayed silent for 2 whole years. I got really close to Amber and I finally let myself love again.” She paused and Niall asked a question.

“Did anyone love you? Did you feel like people really cared?”

“See, that is the thing. I knew Amber cared about me. It was just… hard. You don’t know what it is like to have nobody love you.”

At the last line, Liam closed his eyes and dropped his head into his hands. Niall took MG’s legs off of him and went over to squat in front of Liam.

“What’s wrong baby?” Liam just shook his head. “Can you tell me why you are sad?” Liam shook his head again and this time, a single tear dripped down his face and fell onto the linoleum floor. Niall pulled himself up to sit on the couch next to Liam. He put an arm around his shoulders and pulled him close. “I’ll be right back sweetheart. I’m gonna bring MG to her bed since it is getting fairly late.” MG was already dozing off so Niall picked her up and brought her to her bed, laying her down and kissing her forehead.

She wasn’t asleep fully, but getting there. She heard her fathers talking to each other.

“Ok baby. Look at me,” Niall said. Liam shook his head and buried his head into Niall’s shoulder. “Liam…” Niall warned. Liam lifted his face and looked at Niall. “That’s it babe. Ok. Why were you crying?”

“No one loved her. Why did I leave? She stayed silent for 2 years and no one loved her. No one should have to go through that.” Another river of tears started down the tanned boy’s face and Niall hurried to wipe them away. He soon found it pointless and took his face in both hands. His hands were immediately wet but he didn’t care. He couldn’t stand to see his baby like this.

“Sweetheart…” he cooed. He didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t Ok because Liam felt really bad about it. Saying that it was Ok would only make matters worse.

“What if I had stayed?”

“Then she wouldn’t be the strong girl she is now. These things made her stronger. If you had stayed, we wouldn’t have become great friends.”