~September 1993~

A month has passed since the paperwork was filed. Felicia, AJ, and Nick were all being tutored in their respective math courses. Felicia was having trouble concentrating however, because she knew that she should be hearing from the lawyer and social services any day now. Denise was in the kitchen, making their lunches, when the phone rang. This has to be the call. She picked up the phone.

“Hello?”

“Denise, this is Mr. Palmer,” her lawyer responded.

“So, did the paperwork go through?” Denise asked, anxious to hear the news.

“There was a problem.”

Denise was shocked. “W-what kind of problem?”

“I will explain it to you later. You and Felicia need to meet me at social services in two hours.”

“Okay,” Denise said quietly.

“Don’t worry, we will work this out. I’ll see you later,” Mr. Palmer said before hanging up.

Denise hung up and took a deep breath. Why? She went over to the doorway and watched the kids. They had stopped working on their math and had started goofing off. They can’t take her away, not after this long. She put on a brave front and brought them their lunches. “So, how is the math going?”

All of a sudden they went back to their work. “It’s going,” AJ said, pretending to figure out his geometry theorems.

“Well, then I guess you guys don’t want lunch, right?” Denise asked as she started to take the sandwiches away.

“No!”, all three shouted.

Denise laughed and handed them their sandwiches. “Okay, okay!”

Soon after, Nick’s dad picked him up. Denise waited to tell AJ and Felicia until he left. “Guys, I have some news.”

This is it. Felicia was so excited. She was going to officially be apart of a family again.

“We need to meet with Mr. Palmer in an hour. It has to do with the adoption papers.”

AJ could tell that Denise wasn’t telling them everything. “What’s wrong mom?”

Denise sighed. “I really don’t know. He called when you were working on your math. He just said that we need to meet him at Social Services. We need to get going so we don’t get stuck in traffic.”

Felicia was completely silent the entire time. She looked like she was about to cry. AJ gave her a hug. “Don’t worry, everything will be fine.”

When they arrived at Social Services, they were taken to a private conference room. Mr. Palmer was waiting for them.

“Please, have a seat.”

“What’s going on Mr. Palmer?” Denise asked, wanting to know what was going on.

“Did you know that Felicia still has blood relatives?”

“Yes, Miss Haselton told us what happened,” Denise said.

“Well, by law, if an orphan still has blood relatives, they are entitled to know about a possible adoption. We informed Felicia’s aunt and uncle in New York, they had no problem with it. However, her aunt and uncle in North Carolina did have a problem with it.”

“Oh no…” Felicia whispered. She gripped AJ’s wrist tightly.

“Where is she? I saw her come in!” Felicia could hear her uncle yelling. He ran into the room. “Felicia!”

Felicia gave him a death glare. “Stay away from me.”

“Is that any way to treat family?”

“That’s how you treated me.” Felicia said coldly

“It doesn’t matter anymore. We want you now,” he said.

Felicia started to cry. “Well, its too late! You never visited me, you never wrote, you never called. I bet that if I wasn’t going to be adopted, you would have still not cared about me,” she said as she started to tremble.

“We just want you to be happy,” her uncle said, trying to reason with her.

“I am happy, no thanks to you.”

“But Felicia…”

“NO!” Felicia screamed as she leaned into Denise, her little body wracked with sobs.

Her uncle’s lawyer came in. “Larry, you should not be in here.”

Larry sighed. “We will get you back, Felicia. You can count on it.” His lawyer pushed him out of the office.

“What…. what happens now?” Denise asked, trying to sooth Felicia.

“Well, before he interrupted me, I was going to tell you that they are suing for custody,” Mr. Palmer said simply.

“But she doesn’t want to go with them! She just said it!” AJ said.

“I know, but I doubt this will be able to be settled out of court. A judge will have to make a decision.”

“Do-doesn’t my opinion count?” Felicia asked, still trying to calm down.

Mr. Palmer gave a slight smile. “It will. We will need to decide on a court date. Denise, if you could get a list of witnesses who would be willing to testify for Felicia to be with you, I would need it ASAP.” Denise nodded. “And Felicia, most likely the judge will call on you to be your own witness. He will determine if you are making a conscious decision of who you want to be with.” Felicia nodded. “Do not worry, you will stay with the McLean’s.”