Prologue

4th of July 1994 ( New York city)

"Claudia, we could give these kids up for adoption." The man standing next to the hospital bed said. They hadn't bothered to discuss what they were going to do with the child once it was born.

They had nine months to do it, but they had just chosen not to.

And now she had two babies in the cot next to her. She knew someone who was up for adopting a child.

But that's it!

The person only wanted a child. Even though she thought she could handle a child, now that they were here, she didn't think she could handle it anymore.

She was just seventeen and she lived with her old grandma. But she had figured that when she had the child, she would take on extra jobs, while Grandma looked after the child. But now she has two kids.

It was the fourth of July and thank God Julius had money saved up for hospital bills. Julius, the father of the children, was nineteen and they had been together for four months, before they had broken up. She had found out she was two months pregnant, a month after they broke up.

He hadn't denied that he was the father of the children, he had only asked her what she wanted to do. And she knew he was asking if she wanted to abort or keep the child. She had chosen to keep the child. Because she wasn't a murderer. He was a responsible young man and he had provided her with money to take care of the pregnancy all through the eight months.

But as responsible as Julius was she knew, wouldn't volunteer to take care of a child. He was preparing for his college exams and she knew how important it was to him to go to college. And she wasn't selfish enough to take that from him.

She had to take action immediately, the drugs they gave her wore off. She didn't have much time to decide what she was going to do. But she knew for sure that she wasn't going home with two babies!

" Claudia, we have to think of something." After a pause he continued.

"Why didn't we think of doing a CT scan during the pregnancy ?"

He could ask that again! If they had done the CT scan at least they would have been prepared or something.

After some minutes of silence, she started talking. "Julius, how about we just drop the children off somewhere."

He looked at her like she was crazy. He had also been thinking of that, but he was thinking of how he was going to tell her without sounding cruel. But here she was suggesting it. He knew she loved her children, even though they were totally unplanned. And he knew even coming up with that suggestion must have been hard for her.

He could see the tears coming out of her eyes and she was trying to control them. Julius put his arms around her shoulders. Their break up had happened because they were so different from each other.

While he was someone who believed very much in education and the values of it. Claudia, didn't believe in education at all. In fact she was of the opinion that school and education in general were prisons to a person's potential.

They had argued so many times about the difference in their opinions. But Claudia was a good girl and a very smart one. She had a stubborn streak that annoyed the hell out of him, but he knew that she was a very determined and independent woman. She would be okay.

Later that night the July fourth festivities were going on. They took the babies and left the hospital, each parent with a baby in their arms.

They had planned to go to different locations, so that it would be easier for each twin to be picked up. As Claudia dropped the child with her, tears were pouring out of her eyes. But she knew she was doing the right thing...Or she thought so.

Not far from there, was a family who had a little boy with them. They had come to see the holiday from London. The little boy had strolled away from his parents. And when he saw the baby he had tried to pick the baby up. Little Carter was bent over the baby when his mother found them. When she saw the baby, she picked him up and went to her husband. He took one look at the baby, who had no name tag or anything and looked so vulnerable and fell in love.

"Can we keep him daddy"? Carter asked in his cute baby lisp.

"aww champ I would like to keep him too, but his parents are probably looking for him. We need to get him to his parents."

Meanwhile Claudia was long gone. She knew her gran was going to ask about the baby. But she was just going to say she gave the child up for adoption.

The couple went around asking people if they were looking for a baby, but nobody came for the child. At last they went to the police. Which was the first thing they were supposed to do. After filing a report, they were asked to drop the child at an orphanage, but Liam couldn't leave the very small baby in an orphanage. So they took him home after leaving their home address with the police.

After waiting for two weeks they started the adoption process of baby Evan. They had given him the name they already planned to give to their second son.

And after three months of intense vetting process and search for the baby's real parent, the court gave them Evan. After this they traveled back to London.

******************

Meanwhile, Julius had taken the other baby with him to the other part of town. He had gotten a name tag from the nurse right before he left. This child was his. Even if he couldn't take care of him. The least he could do was leave the child with a name.

So, as he dropped the child in front of the small supermarket in their small town, he wrapped the name tag around his little wrist.

"Maverick Jones"

Jones was his grandfather's name and he knew that his son was going to be okay. He sure hoped so.

He dropped him in the little cot in a tight blanket, so he wouldn't be cold.

He stood on the side and watched as the store attendant came outside and carried him to the police station and then the orphanage.

He knew the orphanage home wasn't the best place to raise a child. But it was better than being with a parent who was going to be too busy to take care of you.

Maverick was taken into the orphanage.

The second day Julius left town to go to college.

He came back for the first five years, to greet the boy on his birthdays. But one day, he stopped coming.

Each boy continued to grow in their different parts of the world. Not meeting once, until it all came crashing down.