Page 62 of Finding Wonderland

“You want to adopt Mason,” she repeated as she slowly walked over to them. “Can we do that?”

“I’ve been talking to a lawyer. We can do it. It’s legal here in Massachusetts.”

“Mom,” Mason looked up at Isla, “can Mama adopt me?”

Isla’s smile grew wider. “Of course, she can, Mace. She’s your mama.”

“This is the best day ever!” Mason pulled them all into another hug, which was becoming the theme of the day. Vera begged her brain to remember every single moment of the day, and was thankful for the few photos they had to cherish the day forever. “I love you, Mommy,” Mason kissed Isla’s cheek.

“I love you too, Mason.”

“I love you too, Mama.”

Vera swallowed the lump in her throat and kissed Mason’s forehead. “I love you too, Mace. Always.”

Chapter 23

Isla

2005

To say that both Isla and Vera were anxiously nervous would have been the biggest understatement of the year. Isla could barely contain her nerves as they watched the timer on the counter tick agonizingly slow. She tapped her foot repeatedly on the tiled floor of their bathroom while Vera sat a few feet away on the edge of the bathtub. Her hands were tucked between her thighs, and Isla couldn’t tell if she was praying or cursing how slowly the time was passing.

It wasn’t the first time they had been in the same position they were now. They had tried to have a baby for the better part of the last two years. Vera had conceived once, but the pregnancy had unfortunately ended in a miscarriage. The experience had crushed both of them, and they had taken time off from trying to mourn the loss.

And get married.

Isla still couldn’t believe she was officially married to Vera Mackenzie. And that Vera had undergone another IVF treatment three weeks ago. Now they were both on edge over the results of the pending pregnancy test staring at them on the bathroom counter.

“What are you thinking?” Isla asked, seemingly startling Vera from her thoughts.

“That I don’t know if I’m more worried about a positive test or a negative one.”

Isla sat beside her on the edge of the tub. As she wrapped her arm around Vera’s waist, Vera rested her head on her shoulder. With her other hand, she took hold of Vera’s as their hands intertwined. They would get through whatever result came from the test together.

It had been eighteen years since Isla had been in a similar situation. Back then, she had no clue if she wanted the test to be positive or negative, not because she was scared of the results but because she was scared of how it could end her career before it started. She was only nineteen when she became pregnant with Blake. Isla had purchased two pregnancy tests before taking the subway to her sister’s house near Columbia.

“Nora?” Isla called out as she let herself into the brownstone. Her older sister was four years older than Isla and in her first semester of medical school. “Nora? Are you here?”

“Kitchen,” Nora called out, and Isla walked down the narrow hallway to the kitchen at the back of the house. She was renting it with four other med students, but it seemed only Nora was home. Isla found Nora at the kitchen table, hunched over a book.

“What are you doing there?”

“Studying.”

“Are you in your OB classes yet?”

Nora’s brow furrowed in confusion as she looked up at Isla. “What?”

“I think I’m pregnant.”

“Oh, shit.” Nora pushed back her seat from the table as Isla sat in the chair beside her. “Are you serious?”

“I am.” She laid the two unused pregnancy tests on the table between them. “I couldn’t take these alone. And I didn’t want Ben to know, not yet.”

Nora huffed a laugh. It was no secret her sister wasn’t Ben’s biggest fan. Hell, she’d said as much to Isla before. But Isla loved Ben, and that was all that mattered.

Or so Isla kept telling herself.

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