"What do you mean, you're worried about my 'situation?'" Leila demanded.

Belldower clasped her hands. "Leila, we only have your best interests in mind. I understand you've been through very difficult times-"

"And you're not making them any easier," Darien broke in, but a look from Leila silenced him.

"All I'm saying is that this," she gestured around her to the apartment, "may not be the best environment for an orphaned teenage girl to grow up in. You need stability. You need a family."

"Darien is my family. He's the only family I have," Leila shot back.

"You have other blood relatives, Leila, who would probably be more than happy to take you in-"

"I know about them," Leila interrupted impatiently. "I've got a couple of aunts and uncles on my dad's side. None of them even offered to take care of me when Mom and Dad and Tyler died. I would have probably gone into the foster care system if Darien hadn't taken me in. As far as I'm concerned, they're not family. They can go to hell for all I care. Family doesn't abandon you when it matters most. Family doesn't give empty promises and hollow words. Family will always be there, and so far the only one in my 'family' who's alive who fits that description is Darien."

"Leila, you're living in a very unstable environment," Belldower explained. She pulled out a file folder. Darien, knowing what was in it, buried his face in his hands, running his fingers through his hair in frustration.

"Mr. Fairchild here hasn't had a steady job in five years," Belldower read. "His credit is sketchy at best, and he's at least a year behind on his taxes." She closed the file folder and looked at Leila. "The fact of the matter is that, given the financial situation of your home and the…delicate nature of your circumstances-"

"What do you mean, 'delicate nature of my circumstances?'"

Belldower sighed. "If you were blood-related to Mr. Fairchild, it would be a different matter. As it stands, when your parents died, legally you should have gone to your godparents- your father's older sister and brother-in-law- or the next closest relative- that's what your parents' wills stated. Now, normally this wouldn't have come to our attention, but we were informed of your situation and-"

"Informed? Who told you?" Darien demanded.

Belldower gave him a look. "That's irrelevant, Mr. Fairchild. The point is-"

"Who told you?" Leila asked.

Belldower sighed again. "A girl who said that she was a schoolmate of yours. I believe her name was Ringer."

"Hana?" Leila said, shocked. "I didn't know she knew."

"About what?"

"That my family was gone. I don't exactly broadcast it on the school bulletin."

"In any case, we were informed of your situation, and came to a decision that you would be better off living with an actual family member."

"Now hold on a minute," Darien began angrily, but Belldower cut him off.

"This isn't a democracy, Mr. Fairchild. It is fully within the state's power to move Leila if we believe that she is not living in a suitable environment. If you were more financially stable, perhaps we could work something out, but a sixteen-year-old should not be living in a small apartment with an unsteady income barely providing a roof over her head."

"Who died and made you people God?" Leila asked, bitter and sarcastic.

Belldower gave her a look that was part exasperated, part pitying. "We're not trying to be God, Leila. We're just trying to do what's best for you."

"What's best for me is to stay with Darien!"

"I'm sorry, but that's not an option. You'll be moving in a week."

Leila gasped. "That's not fair! I can't just move in the middle of the school year!"

"I'm terribly sorry, Leila, but-"

"How can you do this? How can you take away the best thing I have? Darien is my family! You're asking me to just up and move, leave all of my friends, my school, my home, and be happy about it? Are you kidding me?"

"Leila-"

"No!" she yelled, standing up. "What gives you any right to just move me around like a chess piece? Don't I get any say?"

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice. It's the state's decision, not yours," Belldower said, an irritated finality in her voice.

Leila stood there, her mouth half-open, golden-green eyes sparking in anger, silent for a moment, then spun around and ran- more hobbled- up the stairs to her room, shutting the door with a loud slam.

Belldower sighed once again. "Well, that certainly could have gone better."

Darien laughed acerbically. "You come in telling her that she has to move away from everything she knows, with no say in the matter, and expect her to not be angry? I'm sorry, Ms. Belldower, but you've got some very unrealistic expectations." He got up from his chair and moved to the kitchen. "Now I'd appreciate it if you got out of my house."

Belldower pursed her lips, but gathered her things together and left. Once he heard the door close, Darien sighed, then punched the wall furiously, wincing at the flash of pain in his knuckles.

"Is she gone?" he heard Leila call from the landing.

"Yeah," Darien breathed angrily, running his hand through his hair. Leila trundled down the stairs to the kitchen, where, upon seeing her tears, Darien pulled her into a hug.

"They can't make me leave," she sobbed, her voice muffled from being buried in his chest. "I won't leave. I won't."

"I know," he sighed. He held her at arm's length, his hand on her shoulders. "I will do everything I can to keep you, Lei. But the fact of the matter is that I can't go through the entire adoption process in a week. You'll have to go for a little while. But I will get you back, squish, whatever it takes. I promised Tyler I would take care of you. I won't go back on that promise."

She nodded and brushed away the tears running down her face. He gathered her back into a hug and kissed the top of her head, feeling like the world was spinning out of his control.

"What?" Tina said incredulously the next day at school. Leila was sitting at her desk, her head buried in her arms.

"The state doesn't think that I'm living in a suitable environment. They're moving me to my aunt's house next Friday," Leila said, her deadpan voice muffled.

By now all of her friends knew about her family and Darien. Some were still in shock about that revelation, others about the fact that she was moving so suddenly. Wilbur sat on the edge of her desk, his hand on her shoulder.

"But that's not fair! Who do they think they are, just moving kids around willy-nilly without asking whether they wanted to or not!" she said indignantly.

"That's what I said," Leila replied.

"Really?"

"Apparently I have no choice. 'It's the state's decision,' not mine."

"That's the most unfair, sickening thing I've ever heard! How did they even find out?"

Leila didn't answer, but Wilbur had a feeling that she knew. It didn't seem the right time to ask, so he just rubbed her shoulder, silently conveying his support.

After class he stopped her in the hallway. "How did they find out?" he asked her in a low voice.

"Hana," she said simply.

"Hana?"

"She's the one who told them. I don't know why."

The news surprised Wilbur. "How'd she even find out?"

"I have no idea," Leila said. "But it doesn't matter either way. I'm still leaving."

"Can't Darien just adopt you?"

"Not in a week. The whole process would probably take about six months, at the very least. He's going to try to get me back, but there's no guarantee that he'll be able to even adopt me."

Wilbur wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a comforting hug. She held tight to him, trying to keep from crying.

"It's just not fair," she whispered.

He sighed. "I know."

For the next week Leila was almost completely absent from school, being busy packing her things up. On Leila's last day, everyone made an effort to show her how much she'd be missed. Teachers and students alike expressed their well-wishes, and many brought in treats and going-away presents. Wilbur, in particular, noted that while all of it was well-meaning, it did nothing to improve Leila's spirits, which were already low. She drifted through the school day with a forced smile plastered on her face and a mechanical "Thank you" prepared for every condolence and gift she received.

By the end of the day, Wilbur was fed up. Despite Leila's repeated statement that it didn't matter how Hana had found out or why she'd reported Leila, he was determined to find out why anyways. At the end of their last period Tina collected Leila for a minute, and Wilbur saw his chance. Hana had been more distant and quiet than usual, so it wasn't that hard to talk to her alone. When she slipped out of the classroom, he followed her.

"Hey, Hana, can I talk to you for a minute?" he called after her. She halted, seemingly frozen for a minute, then turned around, the expression on her face a mixture between eager hope and nervous apprehension.

"Um, yeah?" she said, a half-smile on her face.

"How'd you find out about Leila's family?" he asked bluntly, cutting straight to the chase.

"Huh?"

"You know what, it's not important how you found out. What I want to know is why you told Child Welfare Services about her."

"I-I don't know what you're talking about," she said lamely, far from convincing.

"You know. Why did you do it? You should have known that it could only end up in Leila been forced to leave."

Hana, who had been partially turned away from him, whirled to face him fully. "I did it for us," she seethed, looking slightly crazed with her blunt-cut bangs and dark hair hanging in her face.

"What?" he asked, thrown completely off guard.

"I had to do it," she pleaded, abruptly changing mood. "You have to understand, I couldn't let her win. I've liked you longer than her! I've known you longer! What right did she have to barge in and steal you?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" he asked, stunned and confused.

"Oh, Wilbur, we would be so perfect," Hana implored him. "But she needed to go."

"Hana, are you crazy? Why would you do something like that?"

"I had everything planned out," she continued, not hearing him. "Then she came in and ruined everything. I had to get her out of the way. I couldn't lose to her, not that bitch." She practically spat the last word out in her contempt.

Wilbur was unable to say anything for a second in his shock. This was a side of Hana that he'd neither seen nor even thought she had. It was dark and obsessive, and, to be honest, it was scary.

"You're the one who broke this up," he said. "She made so many people happy and you took that away."

"But I had to-"

"No, you didn't. You could have been content that I was happy with her, and moved on. You weren't thinking about me, or 'us'- you were only thinking about yourself."

Hana looked as if she'd been slapped. "Wh-what do you mean- of course I was thinking about us! I was trying to protect us!"

"There is no 'us,' Hana!" Wilbur yelled, and the few people still left in the hallway looked their way in startled surprise. "Maybe before there could have been, if I hadn't gotten together with Leila, but now? All you've done now is prove that you're a jealous, desperate girl willing to destroy other people's happiness to get her own. I'd never date someone like that."

Her eyes began to fill up with tears. "But, Wilbur…"

"I don't want to hear it," he said, leaving disdainfully. She frantically lunged out and grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Wilbur, wait," she pleaded.

"I've heard all I need to hear," he said, shaking her off and continuing down the hallway. She stood where he left her, her arm still held out and her eyes now openly overfilling with tears. As he disappeared down the hallway, she whirled around and kicked a locker angrily, cursing silently and crying.

Wilbur, stony-faced, strode down the hallway, making his way to where Leila would be. When he saw her, and she saw him, they immediately embraced, each silently comforting the other.

Well. I'm sorry that I broke the chapter at a really bad place. The first half of the next chapter and this chapter were originally intended to be posted together as one chapter, but it was ending up being way too long. So I'm posting this chapter as Ch. 6, combining the part originally intended for this chapter with the original epilogue as Ch. 7, and writing a new epilogue, which will be a lead-in to a possible sequel. You'll likely be able to tell where the original break was going to be. ...Hope that made some amount of sense to y'all.

We're almost done! I'm almost all of the way through the next chapter (final edit version), so I'll hopefully be able to get it out in a day or two. I'll be slightly busy this weekend (I 3 THREE-DAY WEEKENDS!) with birthday stuff! Yay!

Well, a big thank-you once again to all of my readers and reviewers, anonymous or not. I really do appreciate all of your encouragement and feedback!

~RAH