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Full Legal Name: Laura Parker (nee Atkins)
Date of Birth: June 14, 1978
Current Residence: 123 Chandler Street, New Bern, NC 28562
Marital Status: Married to Ethan Parker
Children: 4 (Grace, 22, Lily. 20, Mia 15, Oliver 17)
Occupation: High School English Teacher
The subject was born Laura Atkins in Nashville, Tennessee on June 14, 1978 to Barbara and Joseph Atkins. At the age of seventeen, she gave birth to a child in Charlotte, North Carolina, though the father’s identity was never recorded.
Nothing exists on the public record from age seventeen to twenty-three, when she married Ethan Parker.
A year after the marriage, Laura commenced studies at Craven Community College, where she began an arts degree, before moving on to East Carolina University to complete her studies. She matriculated with a Bachelor of Science in Education (B.S. Ed.)
According to public records, Laura Parker works as an English teacher at New Bern High School.
Please let me know if you need any additional information.
Sincerely,
Shelby Mills
Mills Investigations
There was more. Photographs, documents, secondary family members. Laura’s parents retired to Florida, where they still lived.
I knew what I needed to do. I had to take this information straight to Scarlett and see what she wanted to do. But I was sitting there, staring at my screen like a lump, unable to move. Because I knew that this would be a huge bomb to drop on her and I didn’t know how she was going to take it. God knows, she had enough else going on right now. Still, she knew the investigation was happening; she knew I’d got the name of her birth mom, and she knew we needed the family medical history.
Just get it over with.I groaned out loud, rubbing my hands over my face before pushing to my feet.
CHAPTER 28
Rhett
Ientered Scarlett’s hospital room with a heavy weight on my chest. The information I carried felt like a ticking time bomb, and I wasn’t sure how she would react when it detonated.
Scarlett looked up from the desk by the window, instantly frowning when she caught my expression. Guess my poker face wasn’t as good as I would have liked. “What is it? What’s happened?”
I drew in a deep breath, steeling myself. There was no easy way to deliver this, so I figured it was better to do it quickly. “My private investigator found your birth mother.”
The words hung in the air like a guillotine blade. I searched Scarlett’s face, bracing for the impact as the realization sank in. Her eyes widened and her lips parted, but no sound came out. For a moment, she looked as fragile as the pale sunlight filtering through the window.
Then she dragged in a deep breath and pushed the chair back, getting to her feet.
“I see,” she said quietly after a tense pause. “So, what happens now?”
Surely jumping straight into questions about the next steps was a good sign? “Well, someone will need to reach out to Laura and request the family medical history details.”
Ah, standing there, chewing her bottom lip while she stared at me blankly, was not such a great sign.
“Do you feel like that is something you would like to do yourself? Because if not?—”
“Are you kidding me, Rhett? This is such a shitty position to put me in! The first contact I have with the woman that gave birth to me is after you’ve broken the law and breached her privacy! What if she’s pissed as hell? What if she flat out refuses to respond? What am I meant to do, then?” Her voice rose as the words tumbled out in an agitated rush. “You had no right to bribe that adoption agency worker and go behind my back like this. You could have ruined everything!”
I opened my mouth to respond, but Scarlett barreled on, glaring at me with her hands on her hips, her eyes spitting fire.