Page 53 of Forever We Embrace: The Later Years
Maceo reaches over Luca’s shoulder and smooths Samuel’s hair. “You can help hold them while one of us stays beside you.”
Rosalie leans closer to Luca’s stomach. “The baby’s room should be yellow, but they can’t have my crown.”
Luca catches the crown before it slides from her head and straightens it carefully. “The crown stays yours.”
James begins asking how long the baby has to grow before it comes out. Samuel moves three cushions onto the floor to mark where he thinks a crib should go, while Rosalie retrieves her crayons and starts assigning colors to every wall in the house.
The conversation spreads around us without becoming a formal plan. Grayson sketches a possible nursery arrangement only after Luca tells him he may. Luther keeps one arm resting behind Luca while he rereads Quentin’s appointment list, and Maceo’s hand moves between Luca’s waist, shoulder, and knee whenever the children shift around them.
Luca reaches back without looking, and I take his hand from the chair behind him. He keeps our fingers linked while Rosalie declares that the dragon from the wedding cake should also appear above the baby’s crib.
I eat half the crackers Grayson placed beside me before realizing they’ve settled my stomach. Luca notices and pushes the rest of the bowl closer with his foot.
Two hours later, the children are upstairs arguing over whether yellow belongs on every wall when the courier rings the bell.
Luther answers the door and returns carrying a sealed packet with the Omega Welfare Board emblem printed across the front. The courier waits long enough for his signature, then leaves without offering any explanation.
The warmth in the room changes before Luther reaches the table. Maceo rises from the sofa and comes to stand beside Luca while Grayson lowers the volume on the television. I take the packet from Luther, slide one finger beneath the seal, and open it carefully enough to preserve the envelope.
The first page is a formal complaint alleging that Luca underwent an unlawful bite removal with the pack’s assistance. An attached transcript presents pieces of Luca’s intake conversation as evidence that he admitted to unauthorized bond alteration.
I read far enough to recognize his words.
The order is wrong. Several statements have been separated from the questions that gave them meaning, and the emphasis has been changed to make Luca’s consent sound uncertain.
A storage device is sealed inside a clear evidence sleeve at the back of the packet. Maceo takes it without opening it and places it beside the envelope.
“This came from Josie’s recording,” I say, keeping my voice low. “But the complaint doesn’t identify who edited it or submitted it.”
Luca stands beside the table with Maceo’s hand resting at his waist. His own palm moves over his stomach while he reads the Omega Welfare Board seal on the first page.
I close the packet before reading any farther and place it face down on the table.
“His room is going to be yellow, okay? Daddy? Yellow!” Rosalie screams from her room. I chuckle, shaking my head as Samuel starts yelling over her.
“He needs a training mat!”
Something smacks loud in the air and then an ‘ow’ from Samuel before silence. I raise an eyebrow and then James says, “He’s going to be a baby. He doesn’t need one yet.”
Luca looks toward the ceiling while their voices continue to spill down the stairs, then turns back to the seal beneath my hand, both of us trying not to laugh.
19
Grayson
By eleven, Luther has outside counsel on speakerphone in the office while Maceo works through the complaint page by page. The original envelope, transcript, and sealed storage device sit inside separate evidence sleeves, each marked with the delivery time and the name of the person who handled it.
I stand in the doorway long enough to hear counsel explain that the Omega Welfare Board has opened a preliminary review rather than issued a finding. The deadline for a formal response and the limits of the Board’s authority are still being confirmed, so Maceo is building a factual chronology instead of drafting arguments around assumptions.
Luther writes down every date the attorney provides. His voice remains measured as he asks which records the Board can lawfully request, whether the complaint affects Ember House’s current operating status, and what protections apply while thealtered recording is examined. Maceo keeps the complaint open beside his laptop, matching each allegation to the original transcript fragments Blake recognized the previous night.
Neither of them speculates about who edited the audio or how Alastair reached the Board. The questions exist, but the first response has to remain narrower than the fear moving through the house.
Blake stands beside the desk with one hand resting on his cane. He has already changed out of the clothes he wore to Quentin’s clinic, though exhaustion still shows around his eyes after the pregnancy confirmation, the children’s celebration, and the complaint arriving before any of us had absorbed either one.
“I can review the allegations against Keller Industries and Ember House,” he says when counsel pauses to search for a procedural citation. “The complaint mixes corporate funding with Luca’s medical history, and that overlap matters.”
Maceo lifts his attention from the chronology. “It does, but I need another hour before I know what belongs in the initial response and what needs to remain separate. Let me finish the first pass before we add another analysis.”
