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JUDITH AND Ava stopped by the house Tash and Devon were living in to pick up Licorice and Sunrise. Ava picked up an extra bottle and a packet of soft kitten food for Sunrise before she sent the vet bot back to her parent’s house.
“I’m going to check on the girls before I head home,” she told Judith.
“You can tell Mom I’m at the hospital when she asks.”
“Hummn,” Judith eyed her elder sister. “Can I tell her about you and Carlos?”
Ava shrugged, “It doesn’t matter. You can tell her how I feel if you want; it might stop her from attempting to match me with cretins. I can’t vouch for Carlos’s feelings, if he has any.”
Judith nodded. “It’s about time she clued in.”
When Ava arrived at the hospital, she was annoyed to find Tommasa still sitting in the ER waiting room to be seen.
“Why haven’t they seen you yet?” she asked the girl.
Tommasa gave her a lop-sided smile. “Not high on their priority list, I guess.”
“We’ll just see about that,” Ava said.
She marched up to the admissions desk, demanding, “Why hasn’t that girl been seen yet?”
The clerk eyed her warily. She could see the steam rising as Ava glared at her. “What is her name?” she asked.
“Tommasa Elena de’Ricci,” Ava said enunciating each word carefully.
The clerk hastily consulted her terminal. “She’s a minor. We can’t treat her without a parent’s permission,”
“Did you com her parents?” Ava demanded.
“Yes, over a half hour ago; they haven’t responded.”
“Well, com them again!” Ava said impatiently. “Or better yet, give me the number and I’ll com them.”
“That won’t be necessary,” a smooth tenor voice interjected.
Ava turned to look at him. She saw a tall, slim man with an olive complexion and grey eyes in a dressy doublet and pantaloons. His pompous air made her dislike him on sight. “Who are you? You’re too young to be Tommasa’s father.”
“Thank God for that. My name is Giuseppe Capitano. I’m aide to Representative Giorgio de’Ricci, the minor’s father.”
“Did you bring permission for the doctor’s to see her?”
He frowned at her. “Who are you?”
“I’m Ava Garneys. I am one of the people who rescued Tommasa,” she informed him, stressing the girl’s name.
He turned back to the admission’s clerk, dismissing Ava, who could feel herself coming to a slow boil.
Capitano handed the clerk a sheaf of papers. “This is a document renouncing their guardianship of the minor, Tommasa Elena de’Ricci to the Child Welfare Department. As soon as a representative arrives and accepts guardianship, I assume a doctor can see her.”
“Give me those papers,” Ava demanded.
The clerk meekly handed them over. Capitano glared at the clerk. “Those are supposed to be private, “he said.
Ava ignored the bi-play and began reading through them until she found where the words Child Welfare Office had been typed in. She crossed it out and wrote in her own name. “Send for the Notary,” she ordered the clerk, who hastily got on the com with the admissions office.
“The notary will be here in about five minutes,” she said.
Capitano frowned at Ava. “Why do you want become her guardian?” he asked in honest surprise.
Ava glared at him. “Someone needs to. She’s a brave young lady. Smart too.”
The Notary, a brisk, bright eyed little woman about fifty, came up. “I hear you have documents that have to be notarized?”
“Yes,” Ava handed her the pages.
“Come over here,” The woman said, moving to an empty desk behind the Admission’s Clerk.
She frowned over the papers. “I see the parent’s signatures consigning the girl to social service has been scratched out. I’m afraid that means the transfer to your guardianship will need to be re-notarized, Miss Garneys.”
“I’m betting Capitano can do it as their agent, can’t you?” Ava said.
“Yes,” he said, “but I’m reluctant to do it without at least a verbal okay from my boss.”
He met Ava’s deadly stare and said hastily, “Give me a moment to com him.”
He stepped away from the desk, creating a Cone of Silence around himself while he made the com.
They could see him nod several times before he closed the com and the cone. “Yes, I can agree to her guardianship on my bosses behalf. Where do I sign?”
The notary took their ID’s snapping a vid still of them which she attached to the file. “Sign here,” she said.
They both signed, then added their DNA to the signature. The Notary handed them each a copy of the paperwork and packed her things into a sealed pouch that could only be opened by her DNA signature and left for the Admissions Office.
Ava turned to the Admissions Clerk, “Now, get this girl seen!”
“Yes ma’am,” the clerk hastily called the triage nurse, pointing to Tommasa.
As Ava was following them to the exam room, she ran into Carlos.
“How is Francisca?” she asked.
“They pumped her stomach and gave her something to counteract the drugs she was given. She’s asleep. Could I impose on you to sit with her until she wakes up? I need to go release Coudet from the cage I was keeping him in (I told him I’d let him go as soon as I had my daughter back). I don’t want her to wake up alone.”
Ava nodded. “I’ll need you to tell admissions it’s okay to put Tommasa in the same room. I just signed up to be her guardian. I’ll tell you about that later.”
“I’ll do that. Thank you.” Unexpectedly, he brushed her cheek with a kiss, before heading toward the admissions desk.
Ava stared after him a moment in astonishment, before turning to go look for where they had taken Tommasa.
Randal and Devon were already at the cave when Carlos arrived.
“Hello,” he said in surprise. “What are you doing here?”
“We wanted to volunteer to act as your seconds when Coudet challenges you,” Randal told him.
Carlos had friends from the old days he could ask, but that would’ve involved a lengthy explanation and he didn’t want to do that.
“Thank you, I accept,” Carlos told them.
Carlos let Coudet out of the out of the cage. Coudet Eyed him warily. “What happens now?” The man asked.
“I take you back to town. I will of course expect to receive a challenge from you over this. My seconds will meet with yours when and where they please.”
Coudet looked at him in silence long moment before he spoke. “I have less of a beef with you over this then I do with the man who gave the order to take your daughter. He must’ve known how you would react. He set me up to take the fall for it.”
“Who ordered you to take my daughter?” Carlos asked softly.
Coudet shrugged. “His name is Jerome Redglove, you probably know him. I understand he’s an up-and-coming politician. He is also the head of the Red Conclave.”
Carlos frowned. “Why would he order my daughter taken?” he asked suspiciously.
Coudet lifted his hands. “The word that came down through the organization, is he wanted to teach you a lesson about going after the Red Conclave members so hard when you prosecute them.”
“I take it that means you don’t intend to challenge me?”
Coudet looked relieved. “That’s right.”
“It looks like I’m going hunting,” Carlos said.
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