Adopting Skye

Mid-August, 2002.

Lake was waiting at home for the inspectors to arrive.

Someone from the Family Court was coming to assess his qualifications for adoption.

Just then…

When the doorbell rang, Lake opened the door and stared speechlessly at his neighbor, Richard Cassel, who had appeared at the doorstep. "What are you doing here?"

Cassel walked straight inside. "Came to help you pass the inspection."

Lake chuckled and closed the door again. "If you can raise Alexis alone, then so can I."

It wasn’t like raising a baby.

How hard could it be to raise a teenage girl?

Cassel glanced at Lake, then pointed at the liquor cabinet in the open-plan kitchen. "Not up to standard."

"…What are you talking about?"

"The liquor cabinet needs to be locked."

Cassel shrugged. "Believe me, you absolutely don’t want to see a thirteen-year-old girl after she’s had a drink, and you don’t want the Family Court showing up either."

Lake: "…"

Half an hour later.

Lake stood in the living room, surveying it. He felt like it wasn’t his living room anymore; it was a locked, utterly unfree living room.

All the fine wines he had scattered around the living room were now locked away in the liquor cabinet, and the cabinet itself was locked.

His gun cabinet, which he used to display his weapons, was now completely empty.

Even…

In the dining room, the mine-shaped ornament that had sat in the center of the dining table as a decoration had been tossed into the kitchen.

Lake snapped back to reality and looked at Cassel, who had transformed his home in half an hour. "This is too much!"

Cassel countered, "This is nothing. You should see what happened at Mrs. Michelle’s place on the fifth floor when she adopted a three-year-old."

"What?"

"You know Mrs. Michelle was a loyal member of the Federal Firearms Association, right?"

"Yeah."

"All her furniture was replaced, and all her guns were moved to her warehouse by the harbor."

"…"

Lake shook his head and looked at Cassel. "So, this is fine then?"

Cassel asked, "Is Skye’s bedroom tidied up?"

Lake pointed upstairs. "There are so many rooms on the second floor, and everything is in place. What needs tidying?"

Cassel couldn’t help but pat his forehead.

Lake: "…"

An hour later.

Lake and the Family Court representatives were chatting on the sofa, while Cassel directed IKEA staff as they moved in various pieces of furniture.

The two Family Court officials looked at Lake.

Lake pushed his glasses up and smiled. "The furniture I ordered a few days ago just arrived. Sorry about that."

This is nothing like the ‘more people, more chopsticks’ scenario I imagined.

Lake thought to himself.

The Family Court staff member smiled. "Major Edwin, this is just a routine inspection. Your file is perfect and meets all the adoption standards."

Lake asked, "So, I passed?"

Another female staff member looked at the layout of the living room and dining room, then at the locked liquor cabinet and the emptied gun cabinet, and said to Lake, "We can see that Major Edwin has put a lot of effort into this."

Lake said thank you.

He ignored Cassel, who was making gestures at him from the top of the stairs, trying to claim credit.

Around noon.

The two Family Court staff members politely declined Lake’s lunch invitation and left.

Lake and Cassel collapsed onto the sofa.

Exhausted.

Lake glanced at Cassel, who was lying on the opposite sofa, and said with a hint of suspicion, "Wait, how did you know I’d pass the inspection? Could it be that Alexi—"

I’ve found you, my blind spot.

Cassel sat up. "Alexis is my biological daughter."

Lake also stood up and looked at Cassel.

Cassel waved his hand and opened his mouth, "Okay, actually, when Alexis was ten, I was busy writing, which caused Alexis to get lost once. After that, people from child protective services came to trouble me, and even the family court sent people to make a final ruling on me."

Lake listened, his expression turning a bit strange.

"Heh heh!"

Cassel looked at the expression gradually appearing on Lake’s face and pointed at him, "Back then, no one told me how to arrange things at home. You owe me a thank you, not a laugh."

Lake tried hard to suppress his facial features and shrugged, "Okay, thank you."

Cassel glanced at Lake speechlessly, stood up, and walked towards the door.

Helpless, Lake could only turn around and sincerely thank Cassel again, promising to treat Cassel’s whole family to a meal at a high-end restaurant when he had time.

Only then did Cassel leave with some satisfaction.

Lake looked at the credit card statement he had just swiped, and then at Cassel’s high-end restaurant, and looked up, his eyes filled with confusion.

He felt like he had been scammed.

The credit card bill of thirteen thousand US dollars he had just spent was the best proof.

Another week passed.

New Amsterdam Hospital.

After repeated requests for re-examination and full health checks by Lake, Skye and Lake, who were confirmed to be in perfect health, not sub-healthy, walked out of the hospital together.

They got into the car.

Lake looked at Skye, who was silent in the passenger seat, smiled, and drove away.

Starlight Tower.

Lake opened the door and turned to Skye, who was standing at the entrance, saying, "Come in."

Skye looked at Lake, "Aren’t you afraid I’ll mess up your place?"

Lake chuckled.

Undoubtedly.

Skye held a grudge.

Lake nodded, "I’m very afraid of people dirtying my home."

Saying that, Lake continued before Skye’s expression could change, "But this is our home now, and it’s your home too, so you can walk in with muddy feet as long as you clean up afterward."

Skye: "…"

In the room on the second floor.

Lake walked behind Skye, looking at the large room with a bay window, a brand-new bed, wardrobe, computer desk, and dressing table. He looked at Skye, who was standing in the room, "How is it, do you like it?"

Skye’s gaze fell on the bed, which looked very soft, "I’ve never had this before."

Lake asked, "A room?"

Skye turned to look at Lake, "The bed."

Even when she was in foster care, she never had her own room. The sofa was the best she could get, and sometimes she couldn’t sleep soundly because some disgusting foster fathers wanted to take advantage of her.

Lake felt as if his heart had been struck by something.

It was fortunate that Lake was a man; if it were a woman, she would likely have burst into tears on the spot.

After a moment of silence.

Lake smiled slightly at Skye, "You can unpack first, and we’ll go out later."

Skye’s own clothes were very old. Perhaps in Skye’s eyes, they were still wearable, but in Lake’s or most people’s eyes, they were ready to be discarded.

So, Lake decided to take Skye to buy some new clothes.

For this.

Lake directly summoned Alexis back from school, gave Alexis his credit card, and then had Alexis take Skye to the mall for shopping.

Cassel was the driver.

He was depressed.

Cassel looked at Lake, "I just drank three cups of coffee and was planning to finish writing my book at home."

Lake said, "I have an appointment with the dean of Midtown High School this afternoon. You can choose to meet with me."

Cassel quickly waved his hand, "I’ll be the driver."

Lake smiled.

Cassel had transferred to many schools during high school, and Midtown High School was one of them. The dean at that time was the current Dr. Nelis.

Adoption isn’t something you can just decide on a whim.

There are responsibilities.

Education is something you must be responsible for.

Lake still firmly believes that learning can improve him, so even after gaining the hope of becoming a god through a cheat system, Lake still chose to study at university.

Therefore.

Skye also needs to study. Lake doesn’t want the super hacker Skye, whom he adopted and who can easily hack into major systems, to simply vanish from the face of the earth because of him.

Skye was very resistant to the idea of going shopping for clothes.

After all, she wasn’t used to it.

However, Lake directly told Skye, "You can choose to have me accompany you, or you can choose to go with Alexis."

Skye chose Alexis.

After waving goodbye to Cassel at the apartment entrance, Lake returned to the Homeland Building. Skye’s fingerprints had already been registered in the system. Lake had a meeting with David Bass that afternoon, so after informing Cassel, he returned to the Homeland Building.

Langley had intelligence indicating that a terrorist organization planned to carry out terrorist activities on the mainland.

New York was the primary target.

This meeting was convened to address this matter. However, it was merely a rumor, and Langley’s overseas agents were trying to gather more intelligence. SEALs from Quantico had also been frequently conducting attacks and interrogations under the guidance of Langley operatives recently.

When the meeting concluded.

Assistant Tiffany walked up to Lake, "Sir, Ms. Nelis is waiting in your office."

Lake nodded, said something to David beside him, and then headed towards his office.

Upon entering the office.

Lake, with an apologetic expression, said to Dr. Nelis, the academic director from Midtown High School, who was waiting on the sofa, "Dr. Nelis, I’m very sorry for keeping you waiting."

Dr. Nelis stood up and shook hands with Lake, "Major Edwin."

Lake raised an eyebrow, "Dr. Nelis knows me?"

Dr. Nelis replied, "A few months ago, I happened to be in Washington attending the National High School Representatives Conference. I strongly agree with Major Edwin’s statement that national security is above the truth."

Lake smiled and said, "Thank you, please have a seat."