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“Would it be alright if I... if I asked you some things? Just... just to get to know you a little?”
I hesitated, my brain screaming at me to shut this down, to protect myself. But my heart had different ideas. Before I could overthink it, I gave a small nod. “Okay. Yes, that’s... that’s fine.”
A brilliant smile broke across Laura’s face, and in that moment, I saw echoes of myself in her expression. The realization was both thrilling and deeply unsettling.
“So you’re an environmental lawyer.”
“That’s right.”
“I looked you up. You do good work.”
“Thank you.” What a strange new experience for me; a parent who approved of my career choice. “So, um, what about you? What job do you do?”
“I’m a high school English teacher.”
“Also good work. Do you like it?”
“I do. It’s very rewarding. I feel like I was born to teach.”
“That’s great.” It all seemed like such surface level bullshit. Stuff you say to a complete stranger when you’re trying to make polite conversation. It made me feel weird and confused, because, of course, this woman was a complete stranger to me, but I felt so much more than that about her. Added to the weirdness of that feeling were all the questions I was screaming to ask her, but they were stuck in my throat. So instead, I said, “And are you married? Do you have kids?”
The way she reacted to what I thought was a pretty benign question had me frowning.
“I am married, yes.” She swallowed heavily and rubbed her hands together before going on. “To your father.”
I stared at Laura in stunned silence, her words reverberating through my mind like a shockwave. To your father? What didshe mean by that? A thousand questions flooded my brain, each one more confusing than the last.
“I... I’m sorry, what?” I finally managed to choke out. “My father?” I don’t know why that was so unexpected. Or gut wrenching. Of all the stories I’d told myself about my mom, her living happily ever after with my…bio dad had never crossed my mind.
Laura nodded slowly, her expression a mixture of sadness and something else I couldn’t quite place. “Yes, your father. His name is Ethan Parker. We’ve been married for twenty years now.” She paused, drawing in a deep breath before continuing. “And we have four more children together.”
Four children. I had siblings - four of them. The realization hit me like a ton of bricks, leaving me dizzy and breathless. All this time, I had been an only child, a single entity drifting through life without any real sense of roots or connection. And now, in the span of a few minutes, that had all changed in the most profound way.
I opened my mouth to respond, but no words would come. How did a person even begin to process something like this?
“I think I’m going to need a minute.” I clambered from the bed and just walked out of the room without a word. Where the fuck was I meant to go? How far could I walk to get away from this? How strong would I need to be to go back into that room? I paced up and down the corridor, caught halfway between fleeing and returning.
CHAPTER 32
Scarlett
Did I even want to find out why the parents who abandoned me went on to have a lovely life together? Was there something wrong with me? They looked at little baby Scarlett and thought, nope; we don’t like her. Let’s trade her in and get one we do like. Or four more we actually like.
My stomach was churning with bile and I pressed a fist to my lips to hold back the scream.
“Scarlett.”
Fuck. I spun back to see Rhett standing there, his hands in his pockets and that flat expression on his face. “I’m fine,” I lied.
“I can tell her to go, if that’s what you need. I can make sure she never comes back, never goes near you again, if that’s what you need.”
I clenched and unclenched my hands a few times. More than anything, I was fighting the urge to run into his arms, to throw myself at him and just bury my head in his chest and sob it out. But I was deathly afraid that if I did that, I’d never fucking stop, so instead I just shook my head and stared at him mutely.
“Okay. How about you take a deep breath?”
I did.
“Now another.”