"And I see you brought quite a troop with you. Care to tell me who all those people are? Obviously, I know Khaat and Robert, your attorney, the two of you, Mr. Belby, and I can figure out for myself which ones are the boys, and I can see there is another security guard. Who are the two older people that are in the waiting room with everyone else?"
"My grandfather and his fiancee," Angus said. "They are ready and anxious to have Sam and Victor be their great grandchildren."
"Bring them in, the older brother, and the boys, please," the chief warlock said. A clerk asked for Jessie, Victor, Sam, Edward and Simone to come in. They filed in quietly, and as the chief warlock looked up, a broad smile of recognition crossed his face when he saw Simone.
"Simone Salazar, is that really you?" he asked.
"Hello, Peter," Simone smiled. The chief warlock most unusually, got up and left his desk to go over and give her a warm embrace and a peck on the cheek. "You look absolutely radiant. Where have you been keeping yourself? The last I saw you was the last Christmas before Maurice died."
"Peter, you haven't aged a day," Simone smiled. "I might have been sheltered off in my little cottage still if it hadn't been for this wonderful man. Peter, I'd like to introduce my fiancé, Edward Donohue."
"Edward Donohue--any relation to the werewolf hunter?" the chief warlock asked.
"I am one and the same," Edward said. "Angus is my grandson, and we are most anxious to make sure that Sam and Victor are safe. I don't think you will need me as a character witness for my grandson, but be assured that they will be safe and well provided for "
"Well met, then, Mr. Donohue," the chief warlock said. "Have a seat, all of you. Now, which one of you is Sam and which one is Victor?"
"I'm Sam," Sam said, choosing deliberately to sit next to Angus, and Marcus moved Victor's chair next to Ruby.
"You lads understand that Angus and Ruby want to adopt you, right? And you understand that forever takes away any legal right your mother has to be involved with you right?"
"That's great," Sam said, spitting it right out. "I don't want her in my life. Not her, not anything she stands for."
"She's never taken care of us anyway," Victor said. "Ruby and Jessie have always done their best to take care of us, and our parents never did anything for us but exchange some bodily fluids, and even then, I'm sure they were only doing it for themselves--whoever our sperm donor actually was. Angus and Ruby have done more for us in the last month than our mom and dad ever did for us in our entire lives, and, no, I'm not exaggerating. I want nothing to do with Suzanne ever again. Sam and I want to be right where we're at."
"You can't make us leave Ruby and Angus's. I won't go," Sam said. Angus reached over and laid a hand on Sam's arm to try to calm him. Angus could see and feel Sam's anxiety, rare as that was for Sam. "Well?" Sam looked at Angus, almost defiant. "I finally have people that give a damn, and I'm not losing it."
"Sam," The chief warlock said, "nobody here is asking you to leave. So it's different where you are than where you've been?"
"Completely. It's everything it should have been, and we don't want to lose that."
"So where you are now has a lot more stuff, does it?" the chief warlock was deliberately baiting Sam a little.
"Screw the stuff. I don't need any stuff and Victor doesn't either. It's the people. It's about finally not being alone anymore. It's about family," Sam said. The chief warlock smiled. That was what he wanted to hear. He looked at Jessie.
"And you're the eldest brother. What are your thoughts in this matter?"