I let out a breath.
“Okay,” I said. “That’s good.”
“There’s one more important thing,” she said and flipped a page. “Their parents were very clear that they did not want their children separated. They wrote that if they couldn’t raise them, they wanted them kept together, in the same home, with one guardian.”
“Where’s the house?”
“Okay.”
She looked up at me. “You did exactly what they asked for. Without ever seeing this.”
My eyes burned. While the system was getting ready to split them up, their parents had literally written, Don’t separate our kids. They’d tried to protect them, even from that.
“Where’s the house?” I asked.
She gave me the address.
It was across town.
That weekend, I loaded all four into the car.
“Can I take them to see it?” I asked.
“I think their parents would’ve wanted that.”
***
That weekend, I loaded all four into the car.
“We’re going somewhere important.”
“Is it the zoo?” Ruby asked.
“Is there ice cream?” Cole added.
“You remember it?”
