I was nervous for hours, unsure of what my fate would be. I never knew that Alphonso and Katherine Luciano were that serious about making me a part of their family until they flew back with me to England. They had taken me back to the foster home where I had originally run away. Imagine the surprise that everyone got when they saw me walked back into that home with Alphonso and Katherine. The caregivers at the home even thanked them for bringing me back and planned on reprimanding or punishing me later on. What kind of system were they running? I mean, a kid ran away from the girl's home for obvious reasons yet the minute the kid returned the first thing that they planned on doing was to punish her for running away. Wouldn't that have been more reasons for me wanting to run away again? They got the surprise of their lives when Alphonso told them that they came to sort things out with getting a foster parent license so that they could foster me. In my presence, they started giving Alphonso and Katherine a hard time about it not being possible at the moment. It was obvious that Alphonso wouldn't let it go without a fight and that was when they excused me from the room to fully discussed things in private.

I had no idea what their discussion would be about or if Alphonso would win this case. They had been locked in the office for hours while I had to be in the lunch area wondering what would happen next. Being back at the sunshine girl's home reminded me how much I didn't want to go back to living there. I had only known Alphonso and Katherine for two weeks but in comparison to the homes, living with them made me feel like a part of a family once again.

Hours passed, and I had even started to wonder if Katherine and Alphonso had somehow slipped out, leaving me without my knowledge. It had been hours since I had last seen them and I found it hard to believed that they were still inside that office. The thought of being left at the home once again made me realized just how much I missed having a family and how close Luciano felt like family to me in the few weeks that I lived with them. I stayed there in the lunchroom under the scrutiny of my fellow wards who kept staring at me and whispering ever since I stepped into that home. I would have sworn that Katherine and Luciano had left me if it weren't for the fact that I hadn't seen them left. During the hours that I waited, I saw the social worker who had put me in the foster home in the first place along with two other important-looking persons came in. I was already getting discouraged and had lost hope when the meeting took several hours. If it took that long, and they had to bring in my social worker and so many other persons, then that must have meant things weren't going as well for my case, was what came to mind. A few more minutes passed before Alphonso and Katherine finally came out of the office. Judging by the looks on their faces, I knew that things hadn't gone as we hoped. I would definitely be stuck at that girl's home. So much for going back and wanting to set things right.

“Kathleen” Katherine called me over.

“What happened in there? What took so long?” I asked them.

“We had been trying really hard to get it approved for you to come back to New York with us,” Alphonso said with a serious expression.

The tone of his voice and his facial expression gave nothing away, but I already read them up. Things hadn't worked out in my favor, I would be staying at the Sunshine girl's home for a while longer.

“I am not leaving here tonight with you guys am I?” I asked solemnly.

“No, I'm sorry.” Katherine shook her head.

My eyes welled with tears as I nodded with understanding. I blinked fast as I tried to blink away the tears. There was nothing else they could have done about it, the decision was already made. I would be staying in foster care for a while longer. The good thing was that I got a chance to experience what it was like to have a family once again. I would forever treasure those moments and I would try my best to never forget these people.

I gave them a sad smile as I went forward to hug them. I hadn't noticed it before, but these people actually gave me hope once again and got me to open up once more.

“I'm sorry you won't be leaving with us tonight.” Alphonso said to me as I went to hug him.

“Me too,” I sniffed, “I enjoyed living with you guys for the short period.”

“In that case, we're happy to hear that because you aren't leaving with us tonight... We're all leaving for New York tomorrow together.” Alphonso said which caused me to be shocked.

“What?!”

“We eventually got everything sorted out,” Katherine smiled “Not only did we got a foster parent license, but we got the license to actually adopt.”

“Oh my god!” I squealed “Does this mean...”

“Yes, we can officially start the process of adopting you,” Alphonso responded.

“Oh my god! I can't believe this!” I practically jumped into their arms.

It took a moment for me to remember that I didn't really know them that well but who cared? Thanks to these people, I remembered what it was like to have a family. I cleared my throat awkwardly and gave them a shy smile.

“Sorry, I got so excited,” I said to them.

“Don't worry about it.”

“That makes three of us.” Katherine and Alphonso responded simultaneously.

“But I... I don't understand. How? How did you get them to agree to this? Things like this usually take months to be finalized. How did they come to this agreement in only a couple of hours?” I was beyond curious.

How had things worked out so conveniently for me? Was I just that lucky or was it that the foster home couldn't bother with me anymore? All these thoughts floated through my brain but if the reason was the latter, I couldn't have cared less.

“Kathleen, you should know that in my line of work persuasion is the art to how I have gained my success,” Alphonso responded “All those business deals I've closed, I did so using the art of persuasion. And when I have Katherine with me, there is no way that we'll ever fail in getting anything that we want. When you become an official member of the Luciano family then you to will learn the art as well.”

“I still can't fully believe this... When you said we weren't flying back to New York together, I thought...”

“We got you good didn't we?” Katherine chuckled.

“Yeah.” I nodded with a smile.

“Your social worker is going to ask you a few questions. As soon as she's finished then our business here is done.” Alphonso responded.

“So, does this mean that I'm fully finished with this home for now?”
I asked her.

“Yes. We leave first thing tomorrow morning,” Katherine responded.
“And Kathleen?”

“Yeah?”

“I'm going to need you to try and be open, don't push us away. We need you to be prepared to start living a new life. Whatever tragedy that has affected you in the past, I promise you that I won't stop until I help you get over it.”