Pushing My Love

Chapter 4.

Amaia POV

Before long we are in Mrs Gibson’s very new blacked out Mercedes sedan heading out of town. We drive for about 45 minutes before pulling up to massive electronic gates which open automatically upon our arrival, driving up a long tree-lined driveway to a huge white house. Well, house is an understatement. This is a mansion.

“Y-you live here?” I ask, stunned.

“Yes my dear, my late husband's family come from old English money.” She replies “They have a lot of connections around the world, so you will also find that there will be a few guards wandering around as well. I don’t want to scare you. I just want to let you know that you are safe here.” She looks over with a gentle smile.

“O-oh OK,” I reply quietly. If anything, the guards make me feel a bit better about being so close to town. I just Tank won’t find out where we are.

Knowing we won’t be staying long, Mrs Gibson only shows us the main rooms and to our rooms. They both have four-post beds with canopies, furnished with beautiful whitewashed pieces. They are stunning. I've never seen let alone experienced such luxury.

I look around in awe and see that Emmy’s wee lip is starting to tremble. Frowning, I pick her up ignoring the pain in my abdomen.

“What's wrong little one?” I ask her, and she just grips me tighter, burying her wee head into my neck.

“Emmy, do you not like your new room?” Mrs Gibson asks and she shakes her head.

“I want Maimai’s bed.” she cries out.

Oh, I should have known.

“It's OK Emmy, you can still sleep with me. That's what you want. Yeah?” I ask, and her wee face lightens up with a nod.

"You can sleep in this big room with me.” I say.

I look to Mrs Gibson, and she gives me a large forced smile with a nod. I can see the concern in her eyes.

I lay Emmy down on the bed as she looks as though she might fall asleep, lulling her to sleep by rubbing her back and singing a lullaby.

When she's finally out, I make my way back through the house to the kitchen to find Mrs Gibson cooking up a storm. I quietly take a painful seat at the island bar opposite her while she works, not knowing what else to do.

After a bit, she pipes up “So I suppose I’ve got a bit of explaining to do?” she looks at me with concern, “But before I do, are you sure you are ok? That cheek looks quite sore. Did..” she pauses “did they hurt you anywhere else?”

I know exactly what she is referring to but there is no way in hell I’m telling her. Nobody will ever know. I was stupid and shouldn’t have let myself get into that situation. It's my fault and my problem to deal with.

“N-no” I reply “Just my wrists and arms where they tried to grab me is all.” knowing I have to give her something.

She gives me a wary look, and knows I probably won’t say anything more while pouring some veggies into what looks like an egg mix. She continues adding a few more ingredients and my mouth starts watering at the smell as it goes into the pan and starts cooking before she goes over to the freezer part of the fridge.

“So,” she hands me a pack of peas and a hand towel and points to my face, “as I said, my late husband is from old-money England. Every few years we would move between this one and one that I still have in England. We met when I was backpacking in the UK and married in London shortly after. We lived there for a while, but I missed home too much, so he brought this place, and we went to and from it often." I nodded to let her know I was still listening.

She continued, "I have a brother, Royce or Roy, as we call him, and he is only 42. 15 years younger than me. My parents had a bit of a whoopsie there.” She chuckles to herself and looks at me with a smile. I smile back.

“So he lives with his lovely wife Mila. She is 37, and they work for the same family my husband worked for. Roy is a tech guru and runs the security for the Stanley family and Mila is a nurse and one of the most caring and gentle people I know. She works full time as a nurse for the Stanley Estate where they also live. Anyway, Roy and Mila have been struggling for a very long time to have children and after 6 miscarriages they decided not to go down the fertility route and were talking about adoption. They mentioned this to me a few weeks ago, not long before Emmy came to you. I told them all about you and straight away they were keen to start the process of adopting you. And when I told them about Emmy, they didn't hesitate about adopting her either. The paperwork is in its final stages, and I was going to let you know as soon as it was finalized. I didn’t want to say anything just in case we couldn’t get you out of Australia, but there would have been a way.” She looks over to me with a gentle smile.

I stay silent, my brain slowly processing everything Mrs Gibson has just told me.

Her younger brother and his wife, who live in London, can't have children and want to adopt Emmy and me. Actually, adopt us. And wait, get us out of Australia??

“We, we are moving to London?” I ask and she nods. “And your” I motion to Mrs Gibson “brother wants to adopt Emmy and I?” Again she nods.

“But they don’t even know us. How do we know that Emmy will be suited to them? Plus, I don’t need to be adopted, I’m nearly 18.” The words just start falling out of my mouth. “There's no point in me being adopted now. I’m nearly an adult but Emmy, yes.”

I was going to try to adopt her myself, but maybe this Roy and Mila can give her a better life. Maybe I could let her go for the chance at a much better life. Could I though?

“Amaia”, I hear Ms Gibson walk towards me, pulling me from my thoughts and patting my arm slightly. I wince. She pulls her hand away with a frown. “Are you sure you don’t need to be checked out by a doctor, Mai?”

I shake my head “No, I’m, I’m OK, he didn’t really get to me. Just a couple of bruises is all. I’ll be fine really.” I pause. “I’m just a bit shocked, is all.”

“I understand, my dear, this is all happening very fast, and I was hoping to let you know a little easier, but with what just happened, we need to get you girls out of here as soon as we can” she says.

“I understand, but Mrs Gibson”, I look up at her.

“Maggie, Mai, you can just call me Maggie from now on.” She interrupts.

I nod and continue, “M-Maggie, I, I don’t need to be adopted. I’m too old to be adopted now. There is just no point, but Emmy, Emmy needs a family. A proper family.”

“Oh my girl, I know you think you are unadoptable, but you are just in the wrong town like many of the other foster children around here. This wee town used to be a great place to live. I grew up here and had a great childhood, but now, it’s gone to the dogs. I understand your hesitancy. You have never had a loving set of parents, let alone one, and have been let down again and again, but I promise you, Roy and Mila will love you like their own. You will love London and you will get to start over.” She explains.

“W-what will happen if they don’t want me and I end up on my own in London? I-I’ve been researching things for when we left here but not another country. I-I wouldn’t know where to start.” I'm blabbing out more things as they come to my head.

“Mai my girl,” Maggie says as she puts two gentle hands on my shoulders. “Don’t you for a second think that Roy & Mila would pick Emmy over you. You are a beautiful girl, with a beautiful heart. I can tell. I can also tell you have been through hell under that asshole's care and I wanted to get you out of there. Trust me, I tried, but for some reason, Tank has some sort of hold over you within the system. The only way out was to a ‘couple’, which I am not. I’m a widow. My money wasn't even enough for them. Trust me Mai I tried. I hated seeing you come into classes on 40 degree days in jeans and long-sleeved tees. I know you were covering injuries and I also know you were starving. That's the reason I pushed so hard for the breakfast club. You're so smart and talented Amaia, and I knew I couldn’t let your adult life be as terrible as your childhood, so as soon as Roy mentioned adopting, I told him about you. You Mai. This was just before Emmy arrived, and they wanted you straight away, so don’t you think for one second that they won’t want you. They want you of BOTH OK?”

I just nod as tears roll down my face. She tried to adopt me and when she couldn't, she pushed the breakfast club to make sure I was fed. I chuckled softly, she called Tank an asshole. Maggie doesn’t look to be a person that swears especially with her petite, floral-dressed frame.

I look at Maggie as she raises an eyebrow at my chuckle.

“Y-you called Tank an asshole. Sorry I thought it was funny, I’ve never heard you swear is all.” I decided to tell her what I was thinking.

“Oh my girl, you will learn fairly quickly that my teacher's persona is much different than my at home one.” She smiles brightly at me as she puts down a delicious-looking omelet in front of me, along with some toast, a large glass of orange juice and some painkillers.

I think she can see the pain I'm trying so desperately to hide, so I thank her and dig in. It is honestly the best meal I have ever had, and it makes me feel a hell of a lot better, but then again, it might also be the painkillers that I just took.

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It's been three weeks since we arrived at Maggie’s and three weeks since I was attacked, and I’m all healed up. Except for the part where I can only hold down one meal a day. Maggie is feeding us three big meals a day, but only dinner is staying down not that I’ve told Maggie this. I'm hoping it's just my body trying to get used to having proper meals for once and I will eventually get used to it. My body has healed from the attack, but my mind has not. My dreams are plagued with nightmares that disappear after a bit, but I'm sure that that is because of Emmy. I always wake up to her snuggled right up against me with her wee hand on my face somewhere. Normally, she’s splayed out like a starfish nearly pushing me off the bed, but now I've been waking up to her snuggling into me and touching me, usually on my face. I think she is trying to stop my nightmares.

During the days I can push away the horror of being attacked by my bubbly, little green-eyed sister, it's when I’m alone that I dwell. I know I shouldn’t. It was my fault after all. I wasn’t strong enough to fight them off, so they got what they wanted. I’m just grateful that Emmy didn’t see it, and she doesn’t seem to have heard anything either.

I look around the room we have taken over since we got here, and I mean taken over. Turns out Maggie, Roy and Mila, or should I say our new parents, have brought us a whole new wardrobe each along with lots of toys for Emmy, including the latest tablet, laptop and phone for me, along with some drawing supplies and books which I think was more Maggie's doing. I was completely shocked. The amount of money they are spending on us, before they even met us is mind-boggling. I’ve never had anything new ever, so a whole new wardrobe is amazing, but all the tech was crazy as well. I don't deserve any of it. I tried to say no, I really did, but Maggie refused to take any of it back.

I haven’t even touched the phone, though I still have Maggie’s old one, so the new one is still in its box but the laptop I’ve had to use so that I could sit my last exam. Maggie set it up so that I could sit it online, so I could officially finish school before we fly out to London in 2 days. Yep, two days and we get to leave this place. I still think it's silly that they are adopting me at my age, but having officially adopted me means that I can get a passport more easily too. I don’t care either way, I'm just grateful to be getting out of this town for good, even if I don’t know the people I’m leaving with.

I hear the sound of a car and look out the window to see two blacked-out Mercedes SUVs pull up. Well, I guess our new parents are here. I sigh and look over to Emmy, who is happily playing with toddler-sized lego blocks whilst I have been drawing in one of my sketchbooks.

“Amaia, Emmy” Maggie calls from down the hall.

Well, here goes... I pick up a smiling Emmy who is still holding two blocks and walk slowly down the hall. Deep breaths, Amaia, deep breaths. I don’t know why I'm so anxious about meeting Roy and Mila. I just hope we are good enough for them.

We walk to the entrance where Maggie is embracing a gorgeous blonde woman who I assume is Mila, while who I assume is Roy, stands alongside with his hand on her lower back. Wow, he is huge! Like built huge and tall. He must be like 6ft 7 or 8! I don’t think I'd like to get on the wrong side of him. He has dark wavy hair like Maggie’s but much shorter, a perfectly groomed beard and towers over Mila and his sister and Maggie has a good few inches on me. He looks over to us with a huge smile.

“Come here girls,” Maggie waves us over. “Come meet my baby brother Roy and his beautiful wife Mila. Your new Mum & Dad.”

“Baby Mags? I’m way bigger than you.” Roy laughs at her.

“You may be huge, Roy, but you're still the baby.” She gently reaches up to pat him on his cheek.

“Amaia, you're even more beautiful in person than in the pictures I've seen.” Mila gushes in her thick English accent as I look down in embarrassment. I’ve never been complimented before on my looks like this. I’ve never thought of myself as good-looking, so I don’t even know what to do.

“And look at this wee cutie.” she smiles at Emmy. “You two have the most stunning eyes. My god, Roy, aren't they perfect?” She looks up to her husband with tears in her eyes.

“Come on my love, let's not scare them off already.” Roy says as he puts his arm over her shoulder in a half hug.

Mila looks at me while putting her hands out, “May I?” asking to hold Emmy. I nod while trying to hand her over, but Emmy's not having it. She buries her head right into my neck and tightens her hold on me.

I look at Mila, who looks very upset as Maggie speaks.

“You are very much a stranger to her, Mila. Don’t be upset, she will take a bit to come round. How about we head into the lounge for a bit before we have some dinner?”

We make our way to the lounge and I pull out a couple of puzzles for Emmy to do on the coffee table. After a while, Roy sits down beside her on the floor making silly noises of the animals that are in the puzzle and getting lots of giggles out of her. I answer the few questions that are directed my way generally about my hobbies and likes and dislikes, but I don’t say much. I’ve never been a big talker and Maggie knows this, and I think they do too, so they don’t prod too much, which I am very grateful about.