"She has no one else," he explained.

"So why does your father feel the need to make it our problem? Why must we take her in?" she shook her head angrily. "Why, Erick?" she demanded.

"I don't know," Erick admitted, "Renee, I don't know why he asked me but he did." He rubbed at his forehead, "and I thought maybe you'd changed your mind about-"

"Well you thought wrong," she said before making her way to the bedroom door. Renee couldn't take anymore talk about children, especially since her marriage with Erick was turning out nothing how she expected. She did her best to try to compose herself before she went to exit the room. "I expect her to be gone by morning and to never hear about this again."

Erick kept silent as she stormed out without even waiting or wanting a reply from him. Standing up from his chair, he too made his way out of the bedroom but down the opposite direction Renee had went in the hall. He found the young girl, Sonja, where he'd left her, in the study, and forced a smile before entering, "sorry to keep you waiting."

"It's alright," she sighed, "thanks for trying."

A knot formed in the pit of his stomach, "am I that easy to read?" he asked.

"Afraid so," Sonja said with a half smile.

He cleared his throat, "I'm sorry to have given you any false hope."

"You don't have to be sorry," she replied, "I expected nothing."

Erick fell silent for a moment. He felt guilty about not being able to give this poor orphaned girl a home. Worse was how disappointed his father was going to be when he had to explain how he was unable to convince Renee. He racked his brain trying to think of how to break the news to his father when his thoughts stumbled upon an old friend. An old friend who her and her husband lost their only child. "You know," he said to the girl, "I have an idea... let me make a few calls."

Sonja nodded in response as Erick left the room again. Going through his phonebook on his cell, he found the name Celia Wizen and crossed his fingers before pressing the call button.