Adding to the Family

The quiet little voice stopped her just as she reached for the light switch. She didn’t know who had spoken, but she guessed it was Kasey, since he seemed to do most of the talking for the duo. “Yes?”

“Could you leave the door open?”

Of course they were scared, she thought with a sudden rush of pity. The poor kids were in a strange place with a woman they barely knew. It was mind-boggling to realize that she was all they had at the moment. That she was totally responsible for their welfare.

Swallowing hard, she nodded and turned off the light, then stepped out of the room. She left the door ajar by a good three inches, so the light from the living room would spill into the bedroom, at least until after the boys were asleep.

Mark waited for her at the kitchen table. At her request, he had made a pot of decaffeinated coffee—not that she expected to get any sleep tonight even without the effects of caffeine.

“Did you call your baby-sitter?” she asked as she poured coffee into a mug. Mark already had a steaming cup in front of him.

“Yes. She’s my housekeeper. She lives only a couple of doors down from me, so it isn’t a problem for me to be a bit late. I’ll walk her home.”

“It must be convenient for you to have a housekeeper and nanny. Especially one who lives so close by.”

“It is. I used to do taxes for her and her husband. When her husband died last year, she didn’t want to sell her house, but she was lonely, and she had no family to turn to, so we worked out an arrangement. It has turned out very well for both of us.”

He really was a compulsive caregiver, Miranda thought as she took a seat at the little round table. Even when it came to hiring his household help, he was actually providing companionship and a little extra income for a lonely widow.

While taking in strays might be commonplace for Mark, it was hardly characteristic for Miranda. “What am I going to do with these boys?” she asked, hoping he would have a suggestion, since her own mind was pretty much devoid of ideas.

“First you should probably find out whatever you can about your sister’s situation.”

Miranda handed him her sister’s letter, which she had already read twice. “Maybe you should read this.”

He seemed a bit reluctant to unfold the page. “You’re sure? After all, this is your personal business.”

“You’re my accountant,” she said with a shrug. “There’s very little you don’t already know about me.”

“Financially, maybe. This is different.”

“Still, I’ve always valued your advice, and I would appreciate any you can offer me now.”

He hesitated a moment longer, then opened the letter and began to read silently.

Miranda could almost recite the words along with him. Her sister had starkly described the trouble she was in, laying the blame on someone else, and had then begged Miranda to take care of her twins.

It had taken this mess to make Lisa realize what a terrible mother she had been to them, she had written. Selfish and irresponsible and immature. Even if she could take them with her now, they deserved to be raised by someone more settled and responsible, like their aunt Miranda. Lisa needed to put her mistakes behind her—presumably including her twins among those mistakes—and start a new life for herself.

She had packed their birth certificates and immunization records in Kasey’s suitcase, she explained. They had been healthy children who rarely needed medical attention, so Miranda needn’t worry about that.

“The boys have no one else to turn to,” she had added. “Miranda, I know this is a lot to ask of you, but you won’t regret it. They’re good kids. And they’re your family.”

Family. Miranda grimaced as she repeated the word in her mind. It had never been a particularly sentimental concept for her, since her own had been so dysfunctional. The idealized image of loving, supportive parents was foreign to her. The only genuine love she had known as a child had come from her maternal grandmother, who had tried her best to compensate for the emotional neglect her granddaughters had received from their parents.

Her grandmother had died when Miranda was only ten. After that, there had been no one for her to turn to for emotional support except her older sister. And now Lisa had turned to her.

“This doesn’t sound good,” Mark murmured, refolding the letter.

“No. If she has already disappeared into the witness protection program, there’s little chance that I’ll ever be able to find her, right?”

“I have a client who’s an attorney. I’ll ask him to look into this as a favor to me. He owes me a few.”

“Thank you. I’d appreciate that. In the meantime, what am I going to do with these kids?”

“You don’t have to work tomorrow, do you?”

“No, I wasn’t planning to go in at all this weekend.”

“That’s good. That will give you time to make arrangements.”

“What sort of arrangements?”

“You’ll have to make plans for some sort of childcare while you’re working. And there are steps you need to take to have yourself named their legal guardian. My attorney friend can help you with that part, too. It’s clear from this letter that your sister is voluntarily giving up her parental rights.”

“Just wait a minute, Mark.” Aware of the partially opened bedroom door, she leaned closer to him, keeping her voice low. “I can’t be their legal guardian. Obviously I’m not set up to raise a couple of boys, even if that were something I wanted to take on.”

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