Chapter 59

"...Juliette was ready to give up her own life and her shot at being adopted for Skye, a kid she had just met. She told me her heart felt pain whenever we told her to go and meet a potential family. When I asked her to describe the pain, she said it was like being cut on your finger. That pumping pain you'd feel in your heart. She said the pain continued till she'd feel her chest swell up in pain and then tears would cloud her vision. Juliette described heartbreak perfectly and that's when I knew that even if they were not blood relatives, they were soul sisters. They were from the same soul and if one was kept apart, the other could not go on living or functioning well. Juliette loves Skye with her entire being and she never hid it for one second. She also told me that Skye used to talk to her. At this point, I thought Juliette loved Skye so much that she had successfully created a voice in her head for Skye. Nevertheless, I believe her because Juliette had never ever lied to me. So, if she said it happened, it happened. I hugged her and promised to help her and Skye to be adopted together. I had to talk to the head Matron then that it would a disaster if she separated the girls. She refused at first but I made her see reasons why things were better off that way and she finally accepted. Then, do you know what happened next?"

"No" Ashley responded.

At this point, everyone in the living room was quite sober up, even Stella. She knew that Juliette loved Skye so much that she would do anything for Skye, that when Juliette ran away, it shocked she and her husband. It was unbelievable to anyone. When they told Sister Cordelia, she was equally surprised but she reassured them that Juliette would come back for Skye. Their bond was too much for her not to come back for her. So, when she called and asked for guardianship of Skye, they could not refuse it. Even now, after the commotion she caused earlier with what she said, they were better off without Skye in their hands.

"She started trying to convince Skye to talk to other people. I heard one of these conversations because I wanted to be sure Juliette was not hearing voices in her head-she had always been as imaginative kid and she could come up with some stories or stuff that always seemed too real-and that's when I heard Skye's tiny voice as she was talking to Juliette. Mind you, this was me eavesdropping on one of their conversation. Anyways, after series of convincing conversations, Skye agreed to speak and then the day the Clarkson's came to the home to adopt Juliette, we told them she wouldn't leave without Skye. They asked to see Skye and when she came out, they asked her what her name was. The first thing she did was look at Juliette for approval, when Juliette nodded in confirmation, she opened her mouth and for the first time in front of any other person said, "Skye". Now, can you imagine the kind of trust, love and patience that had to be realized from Juliette to make Skye talk?"

Juliette kept wiping the tears in her eyes. She was trying not to cry, she had buried and tried to forget all of that. She thought she had done so but apparently, she did not. Skye was not crying because she was too small to remember all of these, she just knew that Juliette was the only person in her world and she couldn't do anything without her big sister. That was her only rock.

Matt listened to every word that the Matron said, he had always been intrigued by how close the two were and they were not even related by blood. He couldn't help but imagine the relationship that would exist between he and his big brother when Winston finally finds out. He could not wait to see the big smile, the possible tears of joy, the hug and the promise never to leave ever other's side. As he looked at Juliette, he realized why she could not leave Nathan even if he was treating her like trash; she loved him. Juliette was a patient lover. If she loved a person, she was very patient with them. She adopts them into her tribe and becomes loyal to them. Her methods in the hands of the wrong person could lead to a waste of time but with the right person, she had a lot of love to give out.

"Their love story or bond is none that I have ever seen or witnessed."

"So, why did she leave me?" Skye suddenly asked.

Everyone was stunned to hear Skye finally speaking for the first time since Cordelia started talking about them. They all turned to look at Skye and then at Juliette. Juliette closed her eyes for some seconds. She never spoke about it to anyone, it was a part of her that she wished never happened and she also did not talk to Skye about it all these while. They probably wouldn't have said anything about it if Skye did not just ask.

Ashley tried to answer and said, "Well, I think-"

"No Ash, it's my question. I should answer the question." Juliette interupted.

"That night I left you was the hardest night of my life, Skye. I had planned to sneak both of us out for more than six months. I had thought about it and everytime I planned it out, the only thing that kept ringing in my head was: You're a minor, she's a toddler, the moment any cop sees you on the run with a toddler, you are toast. Your plans will fail. The Clarkson's will deal with you for trying to run away from them and kidnapping a toddler too. I could not bring myself to be in that situation with you. They could have separated us immediately they find out. They would have starved both of us, that was their favorite punishment anyways. I just couldn't risk it all. Besides, I didn't have anything, not more than fifteen dollars that I had saved up in two years. I couldn't feed two mouths with fifteen dollars for two weeks. When I ran away, before I got to New York, I was actually at Saint Louis. I was there for a while, did some meagre jobs for some money and then went to another city. It was in that city that I knew some-Skye, the things I had to do for survival, it was better you were not there to go through that with me. I was basically surviving and the last thing I would want to do was bring a toddler with me. You would have raised a lot of suspicion."

"Fine. When you got settled, why didn't you come back for me?" Skye asked again.

"I was gonna, I just wasn't ready at the time."

"If I didn't find you and go to New York, would you have been ready?"

"Skye..." Ashley began

"No Ashley, answer me Juliette, would you? Or would you still be unprepared to come for me?"

"Skye, I think-"

"Matt, you don't get to think nothing! Look, I appreciate what you've done for me and all that you do now but I just feel like I made this move. I made you want to be with me again. You actually did not want to be with me and if that's it, don't you think I'm better off going back to the orphanage?"

"Skye, don't say that nonsense, we're taking you home, where you actually belong."

"No. You're taking me to where you all think I belong. What none of you know is, before I packed my bags and went to New York-by the way, that was the riskiest move I had ever made in my life-i had been reaching out to her over the phone, on her social media. Everytime I text Juliette, she would not respond to me. She would read my messages and leave me on read-on read means I can see that she has read it but she would not reply to them. At some point I wanted to give up and just run away to somewhere else and start doing anything to survive. That's when I realized that even if I wanted to, I could not do anything. What then did I do? I went back to the only safety blanket I had, Juliette. I told myself that if she was truly ignoring me, I want her to do it to my face. I badly wanted Juliette to send me away or act like she did not know me. To me, if she did that, it will help me learn how to exist out of her shadow. I could finally become independent, and that's what I wanted. I wanted her to tell me that I couldn't stay with her and that I should go back to the Clarkson's. That was my wish. But it didn't happen. Instead, when I got to her door that door and knocked for a while, on my way out, the landlord found me and wanted to know who I was and how I had gotten into the building or else he would report me to the cops. I had to tell him who I was there for and then he called Juliette and said that she was not in town but she asked him to watch me till Ashley came and got me."

Juliette took a deep breath and then said, "I don't have a definite answer for when I was gonna come get you but every day and every night, before I sleep, I go to look at out message. I stalk your social media but I was scared. I was scared of raising you myself. I didn't know anything about you anymore. I wanted to be sure that you were still the same baby Skye I knew but I knew you weren't anymore. You had friends, at least from what I saw on your social media. Yiu were no longer the shy and quiet Skye I knew. I may not have made the first move towards us reuniting and being together but I am so happy you did, because you're the closest thing to a child to me. Having a kid sister and raising her is like having and raising a child and I don't care if you're the only child I'll ever raise. I love you Skye. I love you today and I'll always love you."

"Now and forever?" Skye asked, tears running down her cheeks.

"Now and forever, as I've always told you."

Then Skye jumped up from where she was sitting and ran to hug Juliette.

Their display of affection for each other made everyone in the room very emotional and then Stella cleared her throat and said, "Juliette, I know you still loathe me for all the things I must have done or did not do to you, and I admit, I was a terrible foster mum to you and Skye but I hope you find it in you to forgive me and let us move from that place of anger. We don't have to be friends, I just want you to find it in you to forgive us. By 'us', I mean me and Brian."

Juliette looked at Skye and then they both looked at Stella and said, "Stella, I forgive you but like you said, this is not an invitation to friendship. This is to release the bad feelings I held in for so long against you and your husband."

"Thank you" Stella replied.

"Well, I guess my work here is done." Cordelia said and was about to get up.

"No, it's not. We're here for-" Juliette began trying to stop her.

Cordelia just started laughing and then sat back down. "Oh Juliette, how easy it still is to fool you. Even after all these years. I know that I still have business to settle with you. I have the adoption papers, all signed and sealed. I will need your signature on some things anything. Just for proper procedure, that's all. So..." Cordelia reached into her bag and brought out two files. She open the first one and said, "sign on the back of the first paper and in the other three papers, your signature is needed on the front page. You can read it through too, I will wait. You're a fast reader anyways."

Juliette just smiled, then she got the document and began to read it through. When she was done she signed on it.

Meanwhile, Cordelia was trying to ask Matt how he and Juliette met and what made him marry her and how long they've been married. Ashley was shocked by how easily and effortlessly Matt lied but she did not say anything. Instead, she went to sit by Juliette and they read through the documents together.

Suddenly, Cordelia looked over at Juliette and noticed that she was still wearing the pendant necklace she had given her as a child. It was a perfect time to talk about the thing she had been mailing her about.

"Juliette, may I see you outside?" She asked Juliette. Then they went outside the living room to the kitchen all the way to the other side of the house.

When they were alone, she said, "Juliette, I see you still wear the pendant I gave you."

"Yeah, you said it was magical and it brought goodluck."

"Yeah, when you were a child. You're now grown, you don't need the fairytale stories anymore."

"I know. It still reminds me of you." Juliette said smiling.

"Juliette, that's not an ordinary pendant." Cordelia was not smiling. She was serious.

"I know, you've told me that before."

"No, that pendant has a photo of your birth mother."

"What the hell Mother! How could you trick me like that! You know I don't want anything to do with her! She abandoned me in the rain that night. She did not want anything to do with me and you gave me a pendant of her face in it? How could you do that to me?!" Juliette said with total disbelief at the betrayal. She tried to yank off the pendant but it did not bulge, so as she tried to remove it manually, Cordelia stopped her.

"Juliette, you're no longer a child. I couldn't tell you everything about your birth and how you were found at the orphanage-"

"Mother, if my birth mother wanted me, would I be at the orphanage? I need a yes or a no from you now" Juliette interupted.

"No but-"

"Then that's all I want to talk about. You cannot say you want me and then abandon me at the orphanage and never came to get me. I'm not something she tossed and now need to reconnect with. I'm a person! With feelings too..."