HC - ish How do you think Owen and Claire explain Maisie to people? Like her school, neighbours ect... I have concocted a rather complicated story in my own head. Right, so they don’t want people to ask questions so they say she is theirs biologically. They just moved back from England where they lived for Claire’s career, explaining the accent. And fingers crossed no one recognised them from the news. It’s far fetched but works. Your theories?
I’m so used to living in multiple universes that my ideas for Maisie spiral off immediately. Maisie Lockwood (heiress)
In which, they take Maisie in but do not hide her away. Maisie who has a birth certificate and social security number, Maisie who is a legal citizen. Lockwood’s lawyer’s sign guardianship to Claire and with that Lockwood’s estate because it’s Maisie’s now but she’s not old enough to take charge. Claire, mostly, doesn’t touch it. Leaves the same people employed and lets them carry on the course. But, with dinosaurs loose on the planet that Lockwood’s name is responsible for, Claire, with Maisie’s permission kickstarts a program to recapture these dinosaurs and relocate them to their intended destination. Sanctuary. It’s a privately owned island. No theme park. No nothing, just the dinosaurs allowed to live out their days in peace.
They never actually adopt her. Never legally take her name and legacy away. By the time she’s 18 she’s 100% their daughter and considers herself under their family name but they’re her guardians, foster parents not adoptive.
Maisie Grady (runaway)
Their runaway. Well, she didn’t run away from them, just ran away with them. The girl whose identity they hide, much like your idea they pretend they’ve always had her or just don’t answer questions that implicate otherwise. They pretty much just pick her up and let those who have remained at Lockwood Manor think she’s dead. They get so caught up in that game that when Karen’s like ‘oh, where’d the kid come from’ Claire’s response is ‘Owen’s always had a daughter’ or ‘Owen’s niece’ something to that effect. Obviously, they don’t lie to Karen. They’re honest with her but have been so prepared to lie that it was a natural response.
In fact, they don’t even talk to her about becoming ‘Maisie Grady’ until Claire’s printing out name labels for Maisie’s books and they all have Grady.
Maisie Dearing (normal kid)
Maisie who had no identity outside of her grandfather’s home, not legal. Have to have paperwork written up for her, which is where they give her legally to Claire. They make her Maisie’s mother and are done with it. It isn’t until a year later that Owen’s name is added, Maisie not thinking it’s far. He’s just as much her parent as Claire is, why can’t she be a Dearing-Grady? Owen has a lot of control here, he’s the one who decides he doesn’t want Maisie to have anything to do with the Lockwood name until after she turns 18 and only if she wants to. For the moment he, and Claire is in agreement, want Maisie to go out and be a kid.
I’m sure I will develop more. But there’s no many theories avaliable and so many paths to take her down.
