The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 488: Daughter (1)

Annalise stared at the paper being pushed toward them in shock. She knew that it was coming for them to proceed with adopting, but hearing that they were allowed to adopt was something she needed a moment to digest. The long-awaited moment had finally come and she was frozen in her seat that they were told yes so soon.

Annalise was so happy that she didn’t know what she wanted to do first. Reach over the table to hug Thelma, hug Lydia, cry, or get up and jump around.

They officially had Lydia as their daughter. She would not have to leave to come back to the orphanage and they have to wait for Thelma’s decision. She could claim Lydia as her daughter to anyone asking who Lydia was to her and Rafael.

Annalise looked down at Lydia sitting between her and Rafael. Lydia mirrored what Annalise was feeling. There was no better feeling than knowing that Lydia had also picked her. Lydia had accepted wanting them as parents.

Rafael held Annalise’s hand.

"Where do we need to write our names?" Rafael questioned, wanting the documents to be filled out quickly so they could be sent off to the court. The sooner her name became Lydia Callahan, the better.

"Right here," Thelma said, pointing to the spaces. "Would you like to take what belongs to her or do you not need it?"

"We should let her take what she wants and what she doesn’t need can be given to another child. We might have gone a bit crazy getting what we thought she needed before we knew that answer," said Annalise.

Annalise could not keep her eyes off Lydia now. Her daughter Lydia Callahan.

It did not bother her that Lydia would be immediately given the name Callahan instead of Woods since her last name would also be changing in the future. It was good for Lydia to take Rafael’s last name now so that whenever they visited the manor, there wouldn’t be any question about who Lydia was the daughter of.

After all, there were only two Callahan men everyone in the manor knew of.

"And you are to sign here," Thelma told Annalise, placing the papers in front of her. "The children must be told of Lydia leaving and the other caretakers. We like to do a little celebration when we send off the children and mark her name on the wall for the children we sent off."

"We have some work we got from a passing teacher for Lydia to do. You might already have a tutor in mind, but until you’ve sorted that out, you could take the work and teach her yourself. Congratulations on your growing family," Thelma said, clapping for the two.

She hoped to see them back again wanting to adopt another child or back with a child of their own.

Annalise finished signing her name and gave the papers back to Thelma. "Thank you for everything."

"The court will send you back a copy of the papers with a name signed on it to confirm the adoption. Would you like some time alone?" Thelma asked since there was much to be discussed with Lydia. She didn’t want to intrude on them celebrating becoming a family.

"Thank you. We won’t be long," Rafael said. He knew the others would want to celebrate with them right away.

"Right. I will see if I can find someone to send these off now," Thelma replied, standing up with the papers in her hands. If she could send them now and the court wasn’t so busy, they should get back the papers from the court tonight to show a record was made of Lydia becoming their daughter.

Annalise waited for Thelma to exit the room and close the door behind her to then say, "Now you know our secret. We were hoping to adopt you from the beginning. To have you as our daughter. You get to stay with us forever."

"Thelma says I should call you mother and father," Lydia said, wanting Annalise to confirm it. Did she need to say it now?

"You can call us that when you feel comfortable. It is okay to refer to us as Annalise and Rafael," Annalise replied, willing to wait for Lydia to decide when she wanted to refer to her as mother.

She knew she had to be patient with Lydia getting used to the fact they were now a family and looked forward to the day mother would come from Lydia’s lips. ƒrēenovelkiss.com

Lydia became silent as she thought about something. She was used to calling Annalise by her name, but she wanted to give it a try calling Annalise mother. She was nervous because she wasn’t used to referring to anyone as mother or father. What if they were to get annoyed by it?

She couldn’t bring herself to do it yet.

"Do you know what you want to take from the orphanage to take home? You can give what you don’t need to a friend. We won’t be living in this town forever," Rafael said, bringing up something Lydia had to know. "You will be going with Annalise to her home which is far away from here and then I will join you later. You’ll get to see the manor weeks later."

"The home from last night isn’t our home?" Lydia asked, confused by what Rafael was saying. She liked the home that they had right now.

"It is our home, but just one of few. Eventually, we will live where I grew up so there is a house there with a room for you. You will get to meet more of your new family. We are also building a new home like a castle," Annalise said, knowing this would be to Lydia’s liking. "Until then you will stay in one of the other homes and get to visit Rafael’s manor. See where all the knights live."

"Oh, so there are many homes. With a room for me," Lydia spoke softly. Now she suddenly had many homes.

"There are. You will get to see all of the homes soon and love them just as much as the one you visited. You will get to see more of your new family soon. You won’t get to see your friends here every day, but we will try to bring you to visit the orphanage as much as we can," Annalise promised.

"Okay," Lydia answered. "I will have a grandmother and grandfather?"

"And a great-grandmother. There is also a little kitten my mother is watching over for us and we can have a lot more pets if you help me convince Rafael. And there is one more secret you must keep among the three of us. Months from now you will have another sibling because there is a baby here," Annalise said, taking Lydia’s hand to touch her flat belly. "You’ll be the older sister."

"A baby is in here? How?" Lydia asked, confused as to how a baby got in there.

Annalise nervously laughed, not prepared to answer that question.

"We’ll tell you when you get older. Remember, the baby is a secret," Rafael said, changing the topic.

Lydia brought a finger to her lips to show that she would not share the secret.