The Prodigal Heiress

by Vickey Rogers

  The day was winding down, and everyone seemed to be very comfortable sitting in the great room chatting. Chris got up and disappeared for about half an hour.

  Just after Abbey came back downstairs, Chris rolled in a pastry cart filled with all kinds of delicacies. Abbey squealed with delight over finding a peach turnover. She had mentioned a few days before how much she loved the ones her mother made but could only find apple and cherry at the market. Lexi saw the glint in Chris’s eyes and realized he was a bit smitten with Abbey.

  Lexi saw the exchanged glances between Chris and Abbey and saw that the feeling was mutual. It was wonderful to see Abbey so happy. She prayed that Jesus would bring Abbey and Chris together if that was His will. They would be a wonderful couple, and she had seen Chris play with Demi. They spent time doing things together the way a father would with his son. Lexi realized she had not noticed these things on a very deep level. But she made it a point to start praying for all of her household to have many blessings and for their safety.

  After everyone had retired for the evening, Lexi and Houston stood out on the back patio where they had first had lunch together. They stood holding each other and watching the waves in the moonlight.

  “You’ve made a lot of people very happy today. You gave them something that can never be taken away.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Love… And you gave them family. You turned this into a real Thanksgiving for everyone. My parents are always gone on Thanksgiving. This is the first real one I’ve ever had. How I adore you, my wife-to-be.”

  Lexi giggled. “You make me very happy too, Houston.”

  “Lexi, I want to talk to you about something,” Houston said hesitantly.

  “What is it,” Lexi ask anxiously. She looked up into Houston’s eyes.

  “I want to talk about Evan. I felt very strongly that he should have been here today,” Houston said then looked at Lexi.

  “Really; I had the same feeling,” Lexi backed away from Houston a few step and took his hands.

  “I believe he belongs with us. Ever since the pumpkin patch, I have missed him greatly.”

  Lexi let go of his hands and grabbed his biceps tightly.

  “So have I!”

  “So we are agreed? We both want to bring him home and raise him?” Houston grinned widely leaning down slightly to be closer to Lexi’s face.

  “Yes!”

  Houston grabbed Lexi and spun her around.

  “Monday morning, we’ll go get things started,” Houston said after setting Lexi on her feet again. He rubbed his chin and looked unseeingly around.

  “Oh, Houston… Just when I think I am the happiest I can ever be, you spring something else wonderful on me!”

  “I intend to do that for the rest of our life.”

  Lexi pulled Houston’s face down to hers and kissed him deeply.

  Lexi was on top of the world. She knew she was a very blessed person, and she thanked God for it over and over. Nothing could take her happiness away, she was sure of it.

  Lexi roused out of a deep sleep. She was a hard sleeper, so waking took a great deal of effort. She knew it was the middle of the night as the room was pitch black. She wondered what had awakened her, and then the phone rang again. Who in the world could be calling at this time of night?

  It was Houston. He had called the foster home to talk to Evan and had found out he was no longer there. He was in the hospital. Then the woman had hung up. No further explanation. Houston had called everyone he could think of trying to get information before calling Lexi, which was why it was so late, but had only run into dead-ends.

  Lexi called around until she found out what hospital Evan was in. She feigned being his aunt. She and Houston were on their way to the hospital within a half hour of Houston’s call.

  Lexi was shaking. She knew something was very wrong. Why would the woman not offer any kind of explanation? And when Lexi had called the woman to demand an explanation, there was no answer. It was all too strange.

  When they arrived at the hospital, the nurse did not buy Lexi’s story of being Evan’s aunt. She contacted Mr. Sutton, and he was able to help them gain access to Evan once he found out their intentions to adopt Evan.

  Lexi and Houston were just about to walk into Evan’s room when a doctor stopped them.

  “Mr. Cheyenne, Miss Hunter, may I speak to you before you go in,” the doctor asked with an obvious amount of concern.

  Lexi started to shake again.

  “Certainly,” Houston said and guided Lexi to a chair in the room the doctor indicated.

  “I understand you are looking to adopt Evan.”

  “Yes,” Lexi said quickly.

  “Have you any idea why Evan is with us?”

  “No. We don’t know anything yet,” Houston said with a sick look on his face.

  “It seems his foster father came home and found some finger paint on the carpet in Evan’s room. He beat Evan unconscious. He has not regain consciousness since being brought in last night.”

  Lexi felt tears fall from her eyes, and then the sobs came. Houston put his arms around her and held her tightly.

  “Money is no object. I want all the best people on his case,” Houston said shakily.

  “Of course, Mr. Cheyenne… I will contact several experts and get them here as soon as possible. Before you go in to see Even, please understand that he barely resembles the little boy you know. There is considerable swelling.”

  “The foster father, where is he?” demanded Lexi as she wiped her nose with a tissue the doctor offered.

  “I believe he’s in jail, unless his family was able to bail him out. I do know he was arrested though.”

  “What a monster,” Lexi said quietly, resolving to never let Evan near people like those foster parents again.

  Lexi and Houston walked slowly to Evan’s room and opened the door. Part of Evan’s head was bandaged, but the part of his face that showed was indeed swollen. He didn’t look like Evan at all. There were tubes in his nose and in his mouth, and there were wires coming from all over his tiny body. Lexi’s heart fell.

  She gingerly took Evan’s hand and kissed it.

  “Evan, honey, it’s Lexi. Houston and I are here. And we will never leave you again. Honey, you have to get better. Houston and I want to be your mommy and daddy. Oh, baby, please get better,” Lexi cried great sobs.

  Houston’s own tears ran freely down his cheeks.

  They sat with Evan until the specialists arrived, and they asked Lexi and Houston to wait in the waiting room. Time dragged. Then they saw Evan being taken from his room.

  “What—?” Lexi started.

  “We’re taking Evan for another MRI, among other testing. We want to know exactly what we’re dealing with,” a tall, thin, older man said.

  “Oh,” Lexi said as and she returned to her seat in the waiting room.

  When Houston sat beside her, Lexi pounded her legs with her fits.

  “Why didn’t we get him out of there sooner?”

  “Lexi, we didn’t know this would happen.”

  “But he wanted me to help him, to protect him. I know that now, and I just ignored it like I did my father’s sickness. Houston, I’m a monster.”

  “Lexi, that’s not true. Honey, you’re upset. I feel horrible guilt that I didn’t say something sooner about adopting Evan also, but we didn’t know. We just didn’t know.”

  Lexi fell into Houston’s arms and sobbed uncontrollably.

  Time crawled even slower. Lexi fell into an exhausted sleep in Houston’s arms until Houston nudged her gently. Lexi shot up to her feet when she saw the doctors coming toward them.

  “What have you found? Is he going to be all right? What can be done?” Lexi begged.

  The tall, thin doctor introduced himself as Samuel Stephens. He asked Lexi and Houston to follow him to a consultation room.

  Once they were all seated, Dr. Stephens started.

  “The boy has had severe blunt trau
ma to the head. There is bleeding on his brain, and he has been unconscious for longer than we would like. Luckily, there are some very good doctors at this facility, and they knew to drain the blood to relieve the pressure to minimize the chance of brain damage. However, being that…Evan,” Dr. Stephens said after looking at his paperwork, “has not regained consciousness… we can only wait until that happens to assess any damage that might have occurred. He’s stable. He was stable when we got here. Where we will come in is when he regains consciousness. All we can do for now is… wait.”

  “We can also pray,” said Houston.

  He and Lexi went to the chapel. Lexi prayed harder than she had ever prayed in her life. She prayed for a miracle for this little one, for God to heal him quickly. She let Him know she was ready to do whatever He wanted her to do no matter what it was.

  A thought flashed into her mind, many kids were in the same situation as Evan. They were in abusive foster homes. She knew there were a lot of good people who ran foster homes but that there were also bad ones. She suddenly knew what God was telling her. She took Houston’s hand and led him to the hallway.

  “Houston, the house, the money, it’s all to take care of the children.”

  “Huh? What children?”

  “Children like Evan, little ones who need a safe place. That’s what God wants me to do with the money and the house.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yes. I have no doubts.”

  “Then that’s what we’ll do.”

  “I’ll get a hold of Mr. Sutton in the morning and find out all the legal stuff first. I’ll find out exactly what we need in place to get this moving as soon as possible.”

  Lexi was filled with excitement. Now she knew the reason God had given her the money, and she knew that Evan would pull through. She had felt Jesus’s hand on hers as she prayed. She was sure of it.

  “I also know Evan is going to be okay.”

  “Yes. I felt Jesus’s presence also. And instantly, my fears were gone.”

  “Let’s go sit with our son.” Lexi smiled.

  Chapter 12

  Three days later, Lexi and Houston were worn out from their ever-present vigil over Evan. He had not regained consciousness, and the doctors were becoming pessimistic. Lexi refused to hear their prognosis or opinions. She kept telling them that the Lord would heal Evan in His time, not theirs. Lexi could see in Houston’s eyes that he was beginning to fear that she was building something up in her own mind that would devastate her. He confirmed it when he decided they needed to talk.

  “Honey, I know how much you want Evan to wake up—.”

  “And he will. I have faith.”

  “But what if it’s his time?”

  “Houston, I felt Jesus tell me that Evan would be okay right here in this hospital. I felt it so strongly, and I have not doubted ever since. I won’t doubt it. Jesus can do anything. He raised people from the dead. He’ll bring our son back.”

  “But—.”

  “No buts, Houston. This is something I’m sure of. You’ll see. He’s just waiting for the right time, and I wait patiently for that time too. It’s also a time of testing for us. Mom told me that God does that. He doesn’t answer some prayers right away because it doesn’t strengthen our faith. But it doesn’t mean that He isn’t going to answer them and help us. And it doesn’t mean that Evan will be hurt by the waiting either. It doesn’t matter what doctors say. Jesus is so very much more powerful and wise than they are.”

  “Okay. I just want you to be all right.”

  “I am. Mr. Sutton is working on all the details for us to start taking in children, and the workers are busy getting thing ready at Rivenwood. I know that the first child to come home to us will be Evan. And all our foster children will play with him when they come to stay with us also.”

  “I want that too. I want Evan home for our wedding. Do you think we should postpone it?”

  “No. I have faith Evan will be coming home with us in plenty of time.”

  Lexi smiled, and Houston believed her.

  They walked hand in hand back to Evan’s room. Lexi sat in the chair next to Evan’s bed and took his little hand in hers and kissed it. Houston bent down and kissed the top of Lexi’s head and then also kissed Evan’s little head.

  Suddenly Lexi’s face lit up and she said exclaimed, “Houston, Evan just squeezed my hand!”

  They both looked at Evan’s face, and his eyes fluttered open.

  “I had a dream,” Evan started out with a scratchy voice as he looked at Lexi.

  Houston gave him a sip of water and went to call the doctors in.

  “He said you’re now my mommy and Houston is my daddy. It was a nice dream.” Evan smiled tiredly. He closed his eye for a moment and then looked again at Lexi.

  “Oh, honey, we are. You’re coming home with us. We’re adopting you,” Lexi squeezed Evan’s little hand then leaned down and kissed his cheek.

  “Really? Did Jesus really talk to me?” Evan tried to sit up but Lexi gently held him down and smiled.

  “I bet He did,” she said as she rubbed his arm lovingly.

  “Is it Christmas,” Evan asked squinting and smiling as if confused.

  “No. Christmas isn’t for a few weeks yet. Why,” Lexi ask taking his hand into both of hers, her heart racing.

  “I ’ready got my present,” Evan said with a large grin.

  Lexi let out her breath as she realized Evan was Okay. Then her eyes welled up, and she kissed Evan’s hand again.

  The doctors had Lexi and Houston leave the room so they could examine Evan.

  Lexi and Houston went to the waiting room and made more plans. Lexi was sure Evan would be coming home soon, and they wanted to do as much as they could to make their son’s life as wonderful as they could. They made plans to do a family Christmas tree trek at a tree farm to get their tree and to go on a sleigh ride with lots of hot chocolate in tow. They talked and planned about all the wonderful things they could do with Evan as long as the doctors Okayed their plans.

  A few hours later, the doctors came to the waiting room with perplexed looks on their faces.

  “What is it?” Lexi asked guardedly.

  “That little boy has an incredible will to live. His body has just about totally healed, and we find no evidence of brain damage at all. Of course, we want to keep him another week or so and run some more extensive tests. But if all turns out okay, you should be able to take him home soon,” Dr. Stephens said, looking like he couldn’t believe his own words.

  “Thank you so much, Doctor,” Houston said as he pumped the doctor’s hand.

  The test showed no permanent damage, and Evan was almost as good as new when he left the hospital with his new mom and dad. Lexi was very happy when the swelling went down and the bandages were removed. Evan soon looked like the little boy she had fallen in love with. Both Lexi and Houston kept tearing up when he called them Mommy and Daddy.

  The doctors approved Evan being able to go places as long as he was not fatigued. Lexi and Houston took extra special care of their son. They brought a padded wagon for Evan to ride in when they went looking for their tree. A week later, when they went on a sleigh ride through the snowy mountain, they brought plenty of hot chocolate to drink to keep them warm. Evan sat on Houston’s lap under a thick quilt. His eyes shone with the love he was receiving and the happiness he felt.

  Lexi and Houston laughed almost constantly at Evan’s jokes. They complained with grins about their faces hurting from smiling so much. Evan complained about them kissing all the time, only to ask them if they were going to kiss already when they hadn’t in a while. Those times, Houston took Lexi in his arms and kissed her, then danced her around.

  Miranda was, of course, the doting grandmother. She read Evan and Demi bedtime stories in the great room, and then helped tuck them each in at bedtime.

  Evan’s bedroom was a little boy’s dream but was not overdone. Lexi and Houston knew that spoiling a child was not God’
s way. But they also made sure he was happy with it. He had a racecar bed and a modest toy box filled with appropriate toys for a four-year-old. Evan was a very happy little boy. He constantly thanked Lexi and Houston for everything, which made them a little sad but also made them happy that he realized that the world didn’t just hand you things normally. They also reminded him to thank God for everything he was blessed with. His answer was always the same: “I ’ready did.” He would say it with such a sweet smile that it made them ashamed of how they often forgot to thank God for all their blessings, but it also encouraged them to remember to do just that more often.

  It was wonderful having a son who understood things the way Evan did. Lexi and Houston marveled at the way he accepted things so quickly and adjusted to changes. His birth mother had taught him very well about God and had nurtured his faith constantly. It was Evan who suggested they have after-dinner Bible reading by the fire. Lexi, Houston, and Miranda loved the idea; and soon, they were having the household come to the great room to join in. They waited until everyone was done with their nightly duties.

  They had their devotional times at about 7:00 p.m. for an hour, all taking turns reading a favorite passage or someone picking one for that night; and then they would discuss what was read.

  One night, they got into a particularly fascinating discussion as Abbey chose the miracle of feeding the five thousand. Each person had an experience that related to that miracle and shared it. They ended up talking for hours. It was an exhilarating night, and they all went to bed with many prayers of thanks to God.

  Houston had moved into the cottage since he was spending so much time at Rivenwood, so the late devotional nights were fine for everyone; and no one wanted to miss one.

  Lexi also suspected that he had taken her advice and talked to his parents and things had not gone well. She didn’t question him as she knew he would confide in her when the time was right for him.

  Chapter 13

  Time seemed to go by in a blink, and Lexi was preparing to go to the church on her wedding day. Everyone was excited. Miranda had come to tell Lexi about fifty times how much she loved her and how exited she was for her. She also couldn’t get over how beautiful Lexi looked. Miranda said she looked like a china doll, very delicate and petite.