Chapter 83: Too Much
The doctor’s words hung in the air, a proposal so absurd, so fundamentally impossible, that Kofi’s brain refused to process it. It was like a line of code that simply would not compile.
’Release her... into my care?’
He stared at the doctor, a man he had met only twice, a man who was now offering him another human being’s life as if it were a stray cat he’d found in the parking lot.
"What?"
The single word was all he could manage. It was weak, incredulous.
The doctor did not flinch. He did not smile. His expression remained one of tired seriousness. He had clearly anticipated this reaction.
"I am not suggesting you adopt her, son. I am suggesting a temporary, unofficial guardianship. A port in a storm. From what you’ve told me, you live alone in a stable environment. You are sixteen, legally a minor, but you function as an adult. Thea is fourteen. She has been effectively abandoned by her only living relative. The system that is supposed to help her will take months to even begin processing her case. In the interim, she has two options: a state-run youth shelter, which is a miserable and often dangerous place, or that house."
He let that last part land. The house, the smell, the filth, the empty pill packet.
"I can’t, in good conscience, send her back there. And I cannot, professionally, keep her here. That leaves us in a legal and ethical gray area. An emergency measure."