Chapter 7 Return To His Family

• She held him close until he calmed down. She wrapped him in a fluffy towel folded on the bathroom rack. She held him for a little longer until she was sure he was okay. Then, she helped him get dressed.
• Once they were done, she gathered their belongings and reached for his hand again. After crying in the bathroom, Liam seemed to have recovered well. He had to let all the emotions bottled up in his body out slowly. She knew it would take a long and painful amount of time before he felt better, though.
• Grace couldn’t imagine what he was feeling. When his father left, at least she had her mother and the home she had grown up in. Liam had nothing but the clothes Grace had found him in. He was barely a toddler and couldn’t speak clearly. She was shocked by how well he was taking everything. But she wasn’t going to deny that there would be awful times and tantrums coming in the near future. She wondered if it would be best to get him therapy when he was settled. He would definitely need to go to the hospital to get an extensive checkup.
• The thought of a future made her stop. What was she doing making plans for Liam and her when she didn’t know for sure if she would see him tomorrow? His family could be found that day or the next. Hell, it could be a whole year or never at all. What was she going to do? Was it worth it? This little boy already had her heart and she would be broken when he returned to his family.
• She looked at his face and glimmering eyes and knew instantly that it would.
• It would be worth it.
• - - - - -
• While Liam and Grace were getting ready, Olivia was already out and about. She was an early riser and even after a long night, she had awoken at the crack of dawn. Olivia had already been to the police station to be abreast of what was happening in Liam’s case. Olivia also picked up the car seat so that they would be safe on the way home.
• But when Olivia stepped into the store, she decided to leave with more things than she had originally wanted. On the way back to the hotel, Olivia even stopped to pick up breakfast for all of them.
• Olivia was just walking through the door, but she could tell from seeing and smelling the room that the boy had been bathed. Liam was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a black t-shirt. He even had on a pair of matching sneakers that seemed to fit him perfectly.
• The corner of Olivia’s mouth twitched at the sight. Even though Lily was not around, she had put a smile on everyone’s face.
• "Hello baby girl and baby boy," Olivia said as she set the breakfast on the table.
• "Hello, ma’am!" Liam answered politely.
• Olivia couldn’t stop the pleased smile that started to spread across her face. She had never met a more polite child before in her life. It was sometimes difficult to tell Liam was only three.
• “I brought us breakfast before we go home. Do you like pancakes and syrup, Liam?”
• The boy’s eyes lit up and he nodded vigorously. “I do!”
• Olivia took out three boxes of food and placed them on the small work table at the corner of the room. Without thinking about it, Grace opened the box and handed it to Liam with the plastic fork and knife. She started cutting the pancakes into small pieces and poured a packet of syrup over the top for him. She handed the fork to the eager boy, who only said “Thank you!” before tucking his head and taking a bite.
• She looked at her father and saw that the older woman had her eyebrow raised while looking between Grace and Liam. Realizing what her mother had seen, Grace shrugged and started to cut her own pancakes. Neither of them commented on how naturally Grace took care of Liam.
• Once they had finished breakfast and cleaned up, Olivia went downstairs to put their bags into the car. Grace helped Liam into his new car seat as Olivia closed the trunk of the car.
• "Hey, Mom?" Grace called. "Is this how the seat is assembled and hooked up?"
• Olivia closed the trunk and stood upright, glaring playfully at her daughter before teasing. “Baby girl, I know my laws well. I can secure a child in cars because I have been trained in it. Thus, I cannot be wrong.”
• Olivia circled back to the driver’s side and winked at her daughter before sliding in.
• “By the way, I had the guy at the store set it up.”
• Grace laughed boisterously as she climbed into the passenger’s side. One thing she couldn’t deny was her amazing relationship with her mother. They didn’t physically hug or have heart to heart conversations, but her mother was funny and loyal to a fault. Moreover, she was easy to get along with.
• Grace looked over her shoulder, ready to apologize to Liam for the barrier between them. Instead, she found Liam looking through a shopping bag kept next to him. She watched with rapt attention as Liam pulled out some toys, a coloring book and some crayons. She glanced at her mother and saw Olivia smiling in the rear-view mirror, watching Liam.
• “You’re amazing, Mom,” Grace said quietly. Olivia rolled her eyes and focused on pulling out of the hotel’s parking lot and onto the road. “Why didn’t I think of this?” Grace questioned herself. She really was ill-equipped to take care of a kid.
• “You’re young yourself. Don’t worry about it.” Then, Olivia spoke in a low voice so that Liam wouldn’t be disturbed by what Olivia revealed. She told Grace that there were no children matching Liam’s age or description on their part of the country. There had been a child missing in the other side of the country, where the mother said the child wandered away at a children’s park. But the age and description of the child were so different that it was nothing close to Liam.
• Olivia and Grace agreed that they would have to go to the court to put in an official petition to be Liam’s temporary guardians. So far only some strings had been pulled to keep Liam with them. Olivia had already spoken to Edward, who suggested that he would watch Liam when Olivia was working and Grace had classes. Even Edwin, Gina, her parents, and Lily had stepped forward to form a support system who wanted to give the lost boy all the love in the world.
• As they headed home, Grace couldn’t help but be hopeful about the situation. As much as she wished for Liam to be reunited with his family, she also didn’t want to lose him. She was already attached to him and all she could hope was that everything would turn out for the best.