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The Charbonne / Hall Family:

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Dgf: Clarisse Marine Charbonne (29)
Dgf: Vanessa Leigh Hall (26)
--DS: Maurice Anthony Benton-Charbonne (7)
--DS: Oliver Martin Hall (nb)

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It seemed like the end of their family, but turned out to be a new beginning...
Just as Clarisse started her last semester of university, Vanessa and her got into a big fight. While Clarisse was following her dream to become a writer, Vanessa felt trapped working to support her and Maurice instead of getting an education herself. And even though it wouldn't take long anymore until Clarisse graduated, Vanessa said she couldn't take it anymore, packed up her things and left.

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Clarisse was devastated. They had made the agreement that Vanessa would go to school later, and she had not realised her girlfriend was never really satisfied with the idea. She was hurt and overall worried, as she had not herd a word of her since the break up. To add to her distress, she found out her grandfather had died. Even if she had been able to afford it, she could not come to his funeral - it had taken place weeks ago, and nobody had bothered to contact her. Somehow she managed to get through the last months of university; luckily Maurice was in school by now, and with the help of some good friends, they could get by.

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It was at her graduation ceremony that she saw Vanessa again. As she walked off of the stage, her diploma in her hands, happy that she had made it, but full of worries about the future, she spotted a familiar face in the crowd. Giving no heed to the order they had been told to stay in until the end of the ceremony, she ran to see Vanessa. Tears in their eyes, they hugged. Without waiting for the rest of the long list of graduates to be read out, they headed home and spent the whole night talking.

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Vanessa had left in a fury, lived with a friend for a while, and started dating a guy she met at work, but had soon realised she had never stopped loving Clarisse. She had felt horrible about leaving her and Maurice, and missed them terribly. Vanessa broke up with her boyfriend... only to realise a few weeks later that she was pregnant. She had wanted to go and talk to Clarisse, but now she was afraid of how she would react. One of their friends that had helped taking care of Maurice finally managed to contact Vanessa and convinced her to come to the graduation.

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Both were happy to be together again, quickly putting aside what now seemed like a petty fight. Clarisse took the message of the pregnancy surprisingly well; she was too happy to see her girlfriend alive and well to get upset by anything. Of course now Vanessa could not start school immediately, so they agreed Clarisse would work for a while and once the baby was born, they would figure out how to go on.

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(The couple don't know this yet, but the rest of the kids will be adopted.)

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