Chapter 19

I could sense that Marie was nervous as we were sitting in a hallway at the courthouse. By the time we moved inside the small office, she was terrified. The old gray-haired judge must have seen that as he came to Marie and took a hold of her hands and looked at her eyes.

"And this is the beautiful girl whom her parents have disgracefully abandoned. Do not worry, young lady. I'll make sure that you are taken care of."

When Marie blushed he released her hands and turned to look at me.

"And I'm sure there is one young gentleman here, whom I already know, who is very willing to help."

"Yes, that is very true, sir."

Ok, I blushed a bit, too.

After that he turned to my aunty and asked her if she could guarantee the authenticity of the recordings. When that was confirmed he turned his attention to Marie and asked some questions about her life with her parents, and how they had reacted when they heard about her being pregnant. When she told him about their plans to arrange a marriage to a distant cousin, some anger flashed behind his gray eyes. Once he was satisfied he turned his attention to me - only now he wanted to know about my financial situation and my plans for the future. Once he was satisfied he checked some things with my aunty. Then he turned to us.

"It has been told to me that you two wish to live together. Eric, here already has a special arrangement with the court to do so, if supervised. According to his school records and financials, he is doing quite well. On the other hand, someone might claim that because of that freedom, we are in a situation like this. Of course we know better, but it might be best for everyone, if that information does not spread outside these walls."

I squeezed Marie's hand while he looked at us. I nodded and Marie duplicated my gesture.

"As I checked, I noticed that both of you will reach the age of majority in the beginning of next year. Since you both seem very mature and capable, and are willing to take care of yourselves, I would consider it total waste of society money to put you under foster care for less than a year. Especially when the two of you are financially better off than some of the families in this area."

He nodded to us before continuing.

"Therefore - as I'm also a judge in family court, and even if there has not been a petition, I'm offering you two an emancipation with condition that you stay in touch with Karen here, and keep her informed about your financial status, etc."

He sighed.

"I'm well aware that what I'm suggesting here may not be exactly according to what is written in those books back there, but since these are my last days in these offices, so I do not need to care much about the consequences. Besides, once I have given the order, it will probably take a lot more than a year to get it officially countered. And within that year, you both will be adults."

He was actually grinning now. Finally it hit me. We could be together. I looked at him.

"Thank you, sir. I'm sorry about the extra trouble we have caused you, but I promise on my behalf that I'll do my best not to disappoint you, and to support Marie and the baby."

The disbelief in Marie's face turned into smile and without thinking she jumped to me and kissed me soundly. She pulled away and blushed a few seconds later. My aunty rolled her eyes again, and the judge was just chuckling. After that he discussed some legal details with my aunty and Marie was holding my hand so tightly that I was almost worried about blood circulation. Then also he reminded us how we should behave in front of the people from the social services - after all, they were just doing their job.

We were saying our final thanks and goodbyes, when he once again turned to me.

"Can I have a few words with you alone, young man - again?"

"Of course, sir."

Marie looked a bit worried when she left the room with my aunty. Once the door closed the old judge turned to me.

"Eric, you can use that old incident as an excuse for this discussion. And as far as I know, all those three boys are doing fine. The change was good for them."

"Thank you, sir, it is good to know that. But what is the actual reason, then?"

"Young man, I think that I know just about everything that has happened. Are you sure you are ready and willing to raise a baby that may have been seeded by someone else?"

I took a deep breath.

"Sir, to be honest - I do not know, yet. When I heard everything that happened, I knew that I was able to forgive her. I guess I had already done that before we were back together. After what happened, I just knew that I had to help her. As for the baby - it is part of her! It will be part of her for months to come, and my feelings towards her have deepened so much during just a couple of days that it has surprised me. But I just do not know how I will feel about the baby when the time comes, not yet."

"But you still feel responsible for that one boy's death?"

"Yes. Somewhere deep inside me, yes."

"Son, you know as well as I do that he would have dumped her as soon as he had found out that she was pregnant and it might be his. That weasel had done it before. I should not tell you this but there has been at least one suicide and one arranged marriage in this county because of him. It may sound harsh, but I feel better that there is one less thug like him."