Page 62 of Made For Me

“Where is Penelope?” he asks, and my heart fills when he asks this.

“She’s in the hospital—” I say, looking at Chase, who cuts in.

“She had a couple of surgeries, but she’s on the mend,” Chase explains.

“I want to see her,” Tristan says, getting up.

“That sounds great, but her grandparents have emergency custody of her and they won’t let you see her.”

“Fuck that,” he says, looking at Nico and then at me. “This might be my kid and I didn’t even know.” He shakes his head. “She could have died, and I had no idea.”

“We get the result in twenty-four hours,” Nico says. “Why don’t we wait for that and then we go to the next step?”

“Do you have a picture?” Tristan asks, and I nod, taking out the last picture I took of Penelope. I hand him the picture, and he grabs it, letting out a sob. “She’s mine,” he says. “She looks just like my sister.”

Nico reaches over and puts his arm over his shoulder. “I want to know that when the test results come back, I can see her.” He looks at me. “I’m sure there will be paperwork for me to complete.”

“There will definitely be more paperwork for you to complete,” I say, “She’s in the system.” I don’t want to scare him, but he has to know. “So there will be follow-up.”

“Whatever it is,” he says, getting up, “I need to take this test.” He smiles at me. “Thank you for finding me.”

I smile at him, the tears blurring my vision. “Thank Monica,” I say, holding up the letter in my hand. “She left this letter for me.”

He nods his head. “Is she—” He looks around. “I’d like to pay for her funeral arrangements. If it hasn’t been done already or if the state isn’t taking care of it. I would like to.”

“We got it,” Nico says, not wanting him to continue. “We’ll get everything set up.” Nico looks at Matthew, who just nods as they walk from the room.

“I’ll give you guys some space,” Max says, getting up. “So proud of you.” He kisses my head.

I watch Max walk out before turning back and looking at Chase. “I sure missed a lot,” he jokes and I laugh for the first time today.

I pick up the letter Monica wrote. “She left a letter to me.” My hand shakes. “Spilling all her secrets. She thanked me,” I say between tears and a smile. “For everything I did for her.” I cry and laugh at the same time. “She wanted to be like me.” I shake my head. “She could have been like me.”

He turns my chair to face him. “You have the best heart I’ve ever seen,” he says, putting my face in his hands. “She knew with you in her corner, anything was possible.” I just smile and he kisses my lips, tasting my tears.

“What is going to happen now, do you know?”

“Well, if Tristan is the father, then he can petition for custody, and since the letter says she never told him, the judge will most likely rule in his favor.” I can’t help but smile. “From what Stuart said, the parents were in it for the payday.” I shake my head. “Not that I’m surprised, but if you take Penelope out of it, their case against me is very weak,” I say.

“Can we get out of here?” I ask him and stand. He stands, looking down at me, his eyes shining.

“I’ll take you wherever you want to go,” he says without skipping a beat, slipping his hand in mine. “Anywhere with you.” He brings our hands up to his mouth, kissing my fingers. “Oh, you won’t even believe what Michael did,” he tells me as we walk out of the room where my life finally came back to me.

CHAPTER36

Chase

“Are you sure about this?” I put the car in park and look over at her. The minute we left the lawyer’s office, all she wanted to do was pass by and see if Penelope was okay.

“All I know is I have to see Penelope.” She puts her hand on the door handle. “If I see Monica’s parents, we’ll leave.”

“Okay,” I agree, getting out at the same time as her. I slip my hand into hers as we walk into the hospital. We walk to the elevator and I press the number four. “I’ll walk in front of you,” I say and she chuckles.

“What are you going to do, be my body shield?” She looks up at me.

“Yeah,” I say, bending to kiss her lips. Her eyes are still red from crying and so is her nose. The elevator pings and we take a step out.

I go on alert now as we walk closer to the room. “Wait here.” I tell Julia to stand outside the door. She leans against the wall as I walk over to the open door. Only when I get to the entrance of the door do I see Abigail. She is sitting on the bed with Penelope in her lap. She is reading a book to her and she looks up and asks her something. Abigail just smiles at her, nodding. I stick my head in and look around. “Hey,” I say and she looks up over at me smiling.

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