“We were.”
“That was after I found your messages,” Michael snapped.
The room descended into accusation.
Dr. Warren finally asked everyone except Sabrina to step outside.
Michael refused at first.
Richard took his arm.
“Come on.”
They entered the hallway.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Then Helen looked at Michael.
“You told us Laura drove you away.”
Michael rubbed his forehead.
“This isn’t the time.”
“You told us she had become cold.”
“Mom.”
“You told us the marriage was dead before Sabrina.”
Michael looked away.
Monica folded her arms.
“Was that true?”
Michael snapped, “Why is everyone interrogating me?”
Richard answered quietly.
“Because ten minutes ago you were celebrating a grandson.”
“Now we don’t know whose child he is.”
Michael looked at his father.
“It could still be mine.”
Richard nodded.
“It could.”
“But you threw away your daughters before you knew.”
That sentence landed harder than anything else.
Michael did not respond.
At that exact moment, I was driving north with Lily and Sophie.
Our suitcases filled the trunk.
Rachel sat beside me.
The girls were in the back seat.
Lily wore headphones.
Sophie held a stuffed rabbit.
Neither girl knew what had happened at the clinic.
Neither girl knew what their father had said in the hallway.
I intended to keep it that way.
Children do not need to carry every ugly truth adults create.
After an hour, Sophie asked, “Is Dad coming to Vancouver sometime?”
I gripped the steering wheel.
“I hope so.”
“Will he know our address?”
“Yes.”
“Can he call us?”
“Anytime.”
She seemed relieved.
Then Lily removed one headphone.
“Will he?”
That question hurt more.
Lily was twelve.
She understood silence.
She understood patterns.
She understood promises that adults did not keep.
“I don’t know,” I said.
She looked out the window.
“At least you don’t lie.”
I wanted to pull over and hold her.
Instead, I said, “I will always try to tell you the truth in a way that
is fair.”
Lily nodded.
Then she put her headphone back on.
At the clinic, Michael demanded a prenatal paternity test.
Dr. Warren explained the options.
Sabrina agreed.
She had little choice.
Michael paid for expedited processing.
Then he left without kissing her goodbye.
His family followed him into the parking lot.
Helen was crying.
Not because the baby might not be a Carrington.
At least, not only because of that.
