Had Rae been in her right mind, she'd have realized how bad this probably looked. Had that been the case; had this been any motherless child, Rae would have taken her in herself. She didn't want to subject anyone to the way that she knew Leah could be, and she knew that giving her a child that wasn't hers would probably make that all the worse. After everything she'd been through, though, proper protocol was the last thing on her mind. She just wanted to do her good deed and go to bed with her boyfriend... maybe get up in a week. Maybe.
The reaction made her bristle a little bit, but she didn't want to get angry in front of Marigold, so she didn't. She turned her head and looked at Marigold, then at Leah. "She is. Very."
How best to explain this?
Pulling in a slow, steadying breath, she stood as tall as she possibly could still and looked Leah straight in the eye. "Her name is Sixteen," she explained. "She's one of the girls from that facility and she was t..." she cut herself off, shaking her head and trying to come up with something to both convey her message to Leah and keep Marigold vaguely in the dark as to what they were saying.
Start with giving her numbers. Numbers and dates. She couldn't deny it when faced with the facts. "She's four years old," she explained. "Her birthday's on the ninth of December. She's been in that place since she was born..." she paused, casting her eyes downward, then looking back up at Leah with determination and grave seriousness on her face. "They told her she doesn't have a mommy. Or a daddy."
If Leah still had doubts, Rae's expression would hopefully change that. "Sweetie, can you look up?" she said to Marigold. "Look at the lady so she can see your pretty face? I bet she'd like that." And that would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, the situation they were faced with here.