Page 16 of A New Chapter
His father sounded like he swallowed a frog.
His mother, however, lost her shit. “What thehellare you doing?”
Colton added a little extra tongue before he finally ended their kiss. “I’m kissing my husband, Mom.” He draped his arm around Rom and snugged him against his side. “No, I’m not introducing you. I changed my last name to his name, and Clayton will hopefully change his name, too. You can go on living your shitty lives while we help him heal from your abuse, and he goes on to live a happy, healthy life surrounded by friends and adopted family who will love him for who he is.”
Ross grabbed the box. “Let’s go, guys. We’re done. We got what we came for. They’re not worth it.”
Ross put the box in the trunk and they loaded into the car. Colton’s parents still stood outside the trailer as Rom pulled out, leaving a dusty orange cloud in their wake.
They were almost to the interstate when the tears hit Colton. Rom pulled over so he could get out and hug him. Ross and Loren joined them in a group hug.
“It’s okay,” Ross told him. “You and Rom have what you need right now to take care of Clayton and get him enrolled in school. Ed will file this first thing tomorrow as an emergency, and Pat Donnelly will be the one to hear it. He’ll rubber-stamp it for Ed. He’s one of us. Then we’ll file the paperwork so you and Rom can adopt Clayton.”
“Adopt him?” Colton asked. “We can do that?”
“Well, considering they literally just signed away all parental rights to you and Rom, yeah, you can. You’re not just his guardians now—you are legally his parents. I’m not sure what paperwork your grandmother had for you, but Ed went full-monty. They signed a power of attorney, guardianship, and revocation of their parental rights, including a statement that they are unwilling to care for him any longer. I was flipping through the papers so fast I’m not sure they read any of them, but we’ve got all we need so you don’t have any more contact with them. Once it all goes through, we’ll send them copies as an FYI, with a note that they don’t owe any money as long as they never contact you again, and that should be it.”
* * * *
“I really hope it’ll be that easy,” Rom said. “How long do you think it’ll take?”
“You’ll have an emergency custody order in your hands by late tomorrow morning,” Ross said. “The adoption will take longer, but we’ll try to get that pushed through. At least a month.”
“Thank you so much for this,” Rom said. “We can’t tell you how much we appreciate it.”
“Hey, we like to give back when we can.” His smile faded as he draped an arm around Loren’s shoulders. They exchanged a melancholy look. “Sometimes you can’t fix something, but you can help make it right. We want to help make this right for Clayton. He deserves a chance to be happy.”
They returned to the car and got back on the road. When they reached the Interstate, they found a place to eat lunch. Ross emptied the box into the trunk and then had Loren toss it.
“How you doing, Rom?” Ross asked.
“I have my EpiPen with me.”
“I’d rather you not need to use it.”
“I probably would have reacted by now if there was enough residue on there.”
Still, Colton walked next door, to a convenience store, and bought a box of large, zipper-top plastic bags, and Ross loaded the items into them for him so Colton could take them inside to go through them.
Once they were at a table and had ordered lunch, Colton started going through the contents so he could sort them into different bags by type. Yes, there were baby pictures, and others. Not as many as they wished there were, but it was a start.
Colton found one of Clayton as a newborn, based on his mother sitting up in a hospital bed and holding a swaddled newborn, and that she looked older than he remembered her being the last time he saw her.
“There’s part of me that really hates that they just tried to replace me,” Colton quietly said. “I mean, why accept and love the son they had when they could throw him away? But then I think aboutwow, I have a little brother. When I was growing up, I always wanted a brother, until they threw me away. Then I was glad I didn’t have one, because I was afraid I never would’ve seen him again.”
Rom draped an arm around Colton’s shoulders. “Their mistake,” he said. “They didn’t deserve either of you. Both of you are too good for them.”
“I wish Grammy could’ve met him.” He sniffled as he looked at another picture of infant Clayton. “She would’ve loved him.”
“She’d probably be in jail from killing your parents,” Rom snarked. “Based on what Aunt Roberta said her reaction was when they threw you out.”
Colton tearfully laughed. “True story. She did a good job early of hiding how angry she really was at the time, because she didn’t want me to be afraid she’d get arrested or something. But later, yeah, she told me she almost hit Mom that day. I didn’t see it, but she said Mom tried to grab me while we were getting my stuff, but I had my back to her, and Grammy got between us and said she almost punched Mom. I guess Mom realized she’d pushed too far, and that’s when she went out in the back yard.”
Colton sniffled. “Before today, that’s the last time I ever saw my mom.”
“You’ll never see her again, either,” Rom swore. “Neither of them. And Clayton won’t, either. I won’t allow it.” He ran his hand through Colton’s hair. “I’m going to take care of you, and him.”
Loren giggled.
