Chapter 119
“Take on an apprentice?” Blanche let out a soft laugh. “Honestly, I’ve never even thought about it.”
“Professor, give me a good word, would you?” Hugo Black called after Fernando a couple of times before Fernando snapped back to attention.
“Laney, both Hugo Black and Felipa are quite talented,” Fernando said. “You might want to consider it.”
Blanche noticed the cloud over Fernando’s face–he was probably still thinking about Terrell falling in the water. “Alright,” she said, “I’ll think about it.”
“You’re all so weird,” Healy suddenly piped up, arms crossed and sounding far older than his five years. “My mom’s just a stay–at–home mom. She can’t do anything, really. Even when she tried working, all she did was play that Minesweeper game. I can beat her at it, no problem.”
Healy loved watching adventure shows and idolized superheroes, so of course, he knew what it meant to take on a protégé.
Terrell immediately protested, “Beautiful ladies are always awesome!”
“Beautiful lady, can I be your apprentice too?” Terrell chimed in eagerly.
“No way! She’s my mom, she can’t be your teacher. And besides, she’s at woman–women can’t be teachers, Healy declared, utterly convinced of his own
logic.
Terrell wasn’t about to back down. “Why not? Beautiful ladies can be amazing. teachers. Who says teachers can only be men? Girls can be teachers too!”
The argument quickly turned into a scuffle, the two boys wrestling and bickering. while Blanche, caught in the middle, took more than a few accidental punches. She gave up trying to intervene, falling silent and, for the first time, truly grasping the helplessness that came with having more than one child.
The three adults exchanged glances–and burst out laughing.
In the ER, Healy and Terrell were each given a thorough checkup.
Hugo Black watched the boys while Blanche and Fernando stepped out into the courtyard.
“I’m really sorry about Terrell, Hugo said, his voice low. “Can you forgive Healy just this once, for my sake?”
“Healy’s only five,” Fernando replied gently. “With enough patience, I’m sure you can teach him well. I’m not upset with him.”
“Then why do you look so down?”
Fernando let out a sigh. “Terrell’s had a hard life. He lost both his parents. I thought if I loved him as my own, gave him everything I could, maybe it would make up for what he lost. I wanted him to feel the fatherly love and warmth he was missing.”
“But I didn’t realize how much sadness he was still carrying.”
“Terrell isn’t your biological son?” Blanche asked, frowning. “You said his mom was a war correspondent who died. What about his dad?”
In that moment, a hundred threads wove themselves together in her mind.
Suddenly, Blanche realized Fernando’s feelings for her might be real.
Fernando looked at Blanche sharply, hesitated, then said, “It’s nothing–someone you wouldn’t know.”
But the way Fernando looked at her just now, she could tell he realized she might actually know who he was talking about, and he quickly changed his answer.
Blanche’s frown deepened.
Maybe it was someone from the base–a person with secrets she could only guess
- at.
“Fernando, I’d like to adopt Terrell. I want to be his mom.”
Eddy rushed into the hospital, only to see Blanche and Fernando chatting and laughing together on a bench in the courtyard. He arrived just in time to hear Blanche offering to adopt Terrell, to be his mother.
She would be Terrell’s mom. Fernando would be his dad.
The realization burned in Eddy’s chest.
“But I’ll have to leave in a few days,” Blanche said, a trace of helplessness in her voice. “I won’t be able to stay with Terrell for long. I don’t want to give him hope. only to let him down. That would hurt him even more.”
Eddy’s brows knitted instantly. What was going on between them? Why did Laney call him “big brother,” and where was she going in a few days?
He strode over, his steps firm and unyielding, pulled a faded old photograph from his coat, and held it out. “Honey, look what I found–an old picture of you and
Chapter 119
Professor Reese. There’s even a few lines written on the back.
