Convincing

Her Son

Vivian couldn’t talk Penelope out of it.

Paper work drawn up as a background check was ran on her, Penelope had zero criminal history. But Vivian did find something odd.

“Somethin’ like wha?” Looking at her boss Frankie Ike and her other colleague Issa Jackson, she sighed, “She’s Penelope Bellrose. Some privileged fourth generation hotel heiress from France.”

Raising an eyebrow, Frankie, the Bronx native huffed, “Well damn. That’s some s**t we don’t see every day.” No, it wasn’t.

“She’s the youngest daughter of the current head of the family. Daddy’s f*****g loaded, mommy was a model in the seventies and now runs some very exclusive and high retail boutique, and the sister is following in their footsteps. Already married to her own millionaire, some French artist, and she herself just graduated two weeks ago as of now. Master’s in business and economics.”

Issa pointed at her with her chop stick, “So all in all some rich woman wants to adopt a baby she found? Yay, happy ending.”

Vivian wanted to say that, but she didn’t know. “I don’t know it feels weird.”

Raising an eyebrow, Frankie was gruff asking, “Wha? You think somethin’ stinks? Could she be the real mama?” Shaking her head, Vivian admitted, “She offered a blood sample to prove she wasn’t his birth mother because a cop was so adamant it could be her so it was ran. Not a match. She’s just been coming back to the hospital, feeding him, talking and singing to him. It seems genuine, I’m just...worried it’s not.”

Realizing what she meant, Issa pointed, “Just because she has money doesn’t mean she’s a snob Viv.” Vivian knew that and had met a few of the elite that had more modesty than the poorest sons of bitches she’d ever met.

And while that was the vibe she got from Penelope? She still worried.

“She seems like a good girl. But that’s the thing. Penelope Bellrose is the quiet one of the daughters. She’s never been in trouble and from French tabloids? She’s the angel. Her sister had a little wild phase for a year but it wasn’t anything major but a few club stumble outs. And even then, grace, poise, and a bounce back that made everyone forget it happened. She’s on top and so is her family. Their names are a brand.”

Which begged the question: “Why would an early twenties, recent college graduate, without a serious partner, decide to adopt a child?”

Not wanting to type cast, but definitely type casting, Frankie understood the hesitance when Penelope came to his office after baby John Doe was placed in the Home Facility until a decision was made. But seeing he’d lost a pound in a week had her worried like a mother and furious at the looks she was getting.

“And might I ask what is taking me so long to get approved? I’m an upstanding person with citizenship for five years. I got it when I came to the U.S on Visa for school and I applied for citizenship so I wouldn’t have to keep renewing it every year I was in school. Didn’t want it to become a thing I accidentally forgot and then I end up deported.”

Which would have ruined her school credits and gotten her kicked out probably.

“Listen Ms. Bellrose, we’re not trying to be difficult and your concern for this child is admirable. But...my colleague has expressed concern I feel is valid.” Knowing that was Vivian and guessing, Penelope asked, “And that is?”

Frankie looked her over, and as the well dressed but casual blonde looked like she was ready to walk a run way or take a rich f**k for all he’s worth? He couldn’t see it. Her, in his wife’s shoes, covered in vomit in a big shirt looking worn out.

Which is what kids did.

Throw up and wear you out.

“A child is a big responsibility and she made it clear you want to not foster, but adopt him and you don’t have any children. A husband. You have no support-.” Penelope leaned forward, “It’s twenty-twenty four sir, not the nineteen hundreds. I know you and your colleagues can clickty clackity on your keyboards and know who I am and you’re basing that basic search on who you think I am.”

Frankie couldn’t interrupt her as she said seriously, “I have a work ethic that has been beaten into my family for several generations and is my lineage as much as my hair and eye color has been. I have plans for a business I will be opening in France soon. I have some big plans for my life already figured out, this one took me by surprise though. My son. But that’s usually how it can happen for some mothers I suppose.”

Shocked she already claimed the kid, Penelope was too but admitted, “I think about him, I worry about him, and I want to give him everything he deserves because when I saw him? The worry I felt consumed me and I haven’t been able to sit it back down since.”

Looking the shocked man over, the middle-thirties gentleman looked like a buffer John Stamos. With a Bronx accent with a full head of hair that had salt and pepper strands now, the man was shocked when she said levelly, “I know that search has you all thinking I’m some bored privileged heiress who is going to adopt a baby and treat it like a purse dog. But I’m not. So instead of being judged unfairly for something that can’t be proven is my character? I’d like a fair inspection in being able to take him home.”

That inspection happened the next day and the two-bedroom loft amazing and passing all standards, Frankie and Vivian tried to keep their mouths closed as they walked around. Asking some final questions so there was no misunderstanding, Vivian clarified, “Even if you get approved to foster him, you can’t immediately adopt him or jet set off to France. If you do that’ll be k********g and if you set foot back in the U.S? You’ll be arrested.”

Nodding understanding that, Frankie asked, “If you can’t open your business in Nimes, and can’t leave, how will you take care of you and a baby? Your parents?” Not embarrassed at all, Penelope admitted, “I have a trust fund left to me by my great-grandfather and grandfather. It’ll be a nice nest egg until we can go home.”

Not surprised the woman could say something as casually as trust fund and the fact it came from two generations of billionaires, making it even more out of reliability for them both. The working-class social workers of working-class parents both wanted to scream snob at Penelope.

But the young woman couldn’t take that.

“Yes I come from money. You can think what you wish about me, I’m a snobby awful person, I’m a b***h who is only going to use him for “I’m such a good person points” but if that's all I wanted to do, I'm sure me just throwing money at the orphanage would have sufficed rather than me take on a whole human being for their entire life."

Both agreed to themselves she was right even if it was worded f****d up, both were also lost when she reminded them vulnerably, “I do not want this to continue to be a judge of what you think about me. What you know is that I’m a good person, in a good home, with the means of providing for that beautiful baby. A baby that is currently in a home that every time I leave him in? I feel sick. Because they don’t give a hundred and ten precent of their time and love and attention to him. They can’t. It’s over filled, under funded, and crowded. So he’s just another screaming mouth. I can’t take it. So stop this cruel attitude. I’m not some bored party girl who is looking for her new meaning. I’m a young woman who has decided on how she wants to start her family. So don’t judge me. Let me.”

Unable to form a single argument and the truths too heavy to ignore? Frankie signed off on it and Vivian eventually did too. Not regretting it as Penelope the very second they brought her to him it was a choice made with love and pure intentions. Even the woman at the Home Facility said it with a sweet rusty smile, “She was here every day checking on him. Hell, I almost thought she took him home once or twice. That’s a mama for ya.”

Watching Penelope be said mama to that boy, they both watched for a year as they went through the ups and downs of learning. Not having the financial support she was supposed to so having to work made things difficult, and challenging.

Sleepless and confused at first at the change, diapers, and needing different things she’d never thought a baby could need to startle her. Nearly losing her s**t when he got sick for the first time, Penelope had to be soothed when she’d had her first panic attack.

Feeling like a failure and wanting to quit, it was as the handsome little boy cheered seeing her, “Mama? MAamma! Mama!Mama!” Crying because she knew then that was a thought she could never have again, Penelope held her son close. “Oh, Mateo I’m sorry. I won’t be such a dunce next time. Okay?”

Kissing his head and saying sorry again, Penelope got over that hurdle in her motherhood with some bruises. But she managed to get over the hill pretty easily.

It was as she finished up her year in New York the process required the adoption went through and she braced herself as she prepared to go home.

“Don’t worry my love. Your grandparents are going to adore you. Your aunt and uncle have already popped you out some playmates so it’s going to be grand. Just you wait.” Kissing his face as he slept, Penelope and her son took an uber to an airport and was on the plane home to France when someone? Found out said son existed. And as they scoured the area they believed them to be in?

They were no where to be found causing a war and anger to rage for five long years...