Chapter 28 - MAYA’S NEW NAMEMaya did not move into our house.
That would have been emotionally satisfying and professionally irresponsible.
Lily made that clear.
Instead, Maya entered a carefully vetted foster placement with a couple who had already fostered teenagers.
She remained suspicious for months.
Then one evening she called Lily.
“They want to adopt me.”
“What do you want?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s allowed.”
“What if it goes bad?”
“Then going bad doesn’t mean you were wrong to hope.”
Silence.
“Did you always know Alessandro would stay?”
Lily smiled.
“No.”
“But you let him adopt you.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because by then he had spent years proving he stayed.”
Maya eventually agreed.
Not immediately.
After therapy.
After arguments.
After family meetings.
After demanding she keep Torres as her surname.
Her foster parents agreed.
At the adoption hearing, the judge asked whether she understood the decision.
Maya said:
“Yes.”
“Do you consent?”
“Yes.”
Then she looked toward Lily.
“But I’m keeping my name.”
Lily smiled.
“Good.”
Afterward Maya asked me:
“Does becoming family always involve this much paperwork?”
I stared at Lily.
Lily began laughing.
“What?”
May you like
“That is exactly what I said when I was three.”
Family, apparently, repeated the good lines too.
