The McRae Series 01 - Twelve Days Sam and Rachel

their mother."
    Oh, hell. Sam forgot about mentioning that. "I thought you sent out all sorts of bulletins about them."
    "We did, but bulletins about a mother who abandoned them. If we focus on the father, children taken by their mothers from their fathers... Those cases aren't as clear-cut. Lots of times, law enforcement isn't exactly jumping up and down to get involved. It's a custody issue, for the courts to handle."
    Sam nodded, feeling sick inside, thinking what he'd told Miriam before he'd understood what the children were facing might help send them back to an abusive father. And then, he had to ask one more question. "What happens if you don't find anyone for them?"
    "We look for a long-term placement. If we're very, very lucky, an adoption, if it goes that far. Most people don't truly abandon their children, Sam. They might dump them somewhere for a while, but things get better. People sober up. Or feel guilty. Or panic and come back. Or we find out where they're from and that leads us to someone who can take them. A grandmother, an aunt, someone."
    "Anyone?" he asked, offended by the thought.
    "What are their options? They're three children. Do you have any idea how few people are willing to take on three children at once? If we split them up, I could place Grace in a second. People would fight to get her. And I might be able to place Zach. He's still young enough. But Emma..."
    "You can't split them up," he said.
    "I may not have a choice. I'd be out begging, just like I was when I showed up at your and Rachel's door," she said. "Oh, I have a few possibilities. People call me from time to time who are looking to adopt, and there might be someone on my list I could talk into taking them all. In fact, now that I think about it there's a woman I know in her mid-forties, someone who's spent the last twenty years building up a business she just sold. She's regretting never having a child, and she certainly has the financial resources to raise three children. She's looking for one child, but she might be convinced to take them."
    "A single parent? You let single people adopt?"
    "Yes. We'd prefer two-parent families. They tend to get priority, especially with infants. But it's not always possible to find two-parent homes for all the children up for adoption. If it's a choice between long-term foster care and a single-parent adoption, we'll go for the adoption."
    "So if..." God, he was going to say that even if he and Rachel split up, Rachel could still keep the children.
    She didn't need him as much as he thought she did.
    "Sam?" Miriam asked. "Are you okay?"
    He nodded. All these years, children had been the one thing he and Rachel hadn't had, one thing he hadn't been able to give her. Now he found out she didn't need him at all for that. Not to keep these children.
    "What's going on?" Miriam asked.
    "Nothing," he insisted.
    "Do you and Rachel want them if they become available for adoption?" she asked. "I have to warn you, I don't know how long we might be living in limbo here—how long we'll look for their parents, whether we'll ever find them, whether the children will ever be free for adoption. There are no guarantees here, and I thought after what happened with Will..."
    "I don't know," he said. "I have to talk to Rachel."
    And then he thought of what his wife had already done, the promises she'd already made on their behalf, and took a leap of faith himself.
    "But you don't have to look for someone else to take them after Christmas. They can stay at our house. Rachel already promised them that. It's not a problem, is it? We've still got all our paperwork in order?"
    "Yes. You and Rachel can have them for as long as you want them, provided we don't find where they belong."
    "Okay." He frowned. "You have single-parent foster homes, too?"
    "Of course."
    "It's not a problem? Being a single parent?"
    "We're not exactly overwhelmed with people dying to take foster kids into their homes, Sam. We have plenty of kids to go around." She frowned at him. "What's going on?"
    "Just curious," he said, shaking his head back and forth.
    A few days ago he felt trapped because of the kids. He couldn't have walked out on Rachel and the kids. Now he worried that they didn't need him at all. Oh, he could probably take the coward's way out, stay for the sake of the children, and maybe Rachel would keep him around for the same reason.
    But it was about the saddest reason he could think of for him and Rachel to stay together, and