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Jackson pulls a fake cringe and I wipe my eyes, sitting up and waving my hand to get on with it.
“What, if anything, do you know about your biological father?” Bennet digs right in, and Jackson’s face sobers immediately, his forehead creasing in confusion.
“Literally zero, why?”
“We have a theory.” Bennet answers. Jackson stares at him, and then turns his head to look at me. He doesn’t say anything, he just waits for us to keep talking.
“When you got in my car the other day, you struck me as… familiar. Then when you introduced yourself, I figured it would be too big of a coincidence. I got sidetracked, focusing all my efforts on getting her out of the hospital. Every time I talked to you, it was nagging in the back of my head, but I thought I would investigate the possibility once we were here. To be honest, before I had a similar revelation with Luis, I wasn’t planning on saying anything until I knew for sure, but Luis helped me come to the conclusion that we should all explore this situation together.”
Jackson isn’t catching on. “And that situation would be…”
“That we might have the same father.” He says plainly, finally.
Jackson’s head snaps up and he looks at Bennet like he’s out of his mind. “You’re kidding, right?” He laughs, looking at me to back up the joke, but I just shrug. “And what is your part in all this supposed to be?” He asks me, still grinning.
“I probably have the same father too.”
At that, he busts out laughing in earnest. I give Bennet a knowing look, and then pull up one of the pictures I found this morning. I hand my phone to Jackson and his grin immediately falls.
“That is Jackson Adley in his mid-twenties.” I say, allowing him a few moments to process.
He looks up again, his face registering shock. He’s a lot more shocked than I was, even though it’s way more obvious.
“And… you too?” He looks at me confused. He stares at the photo again and then back at me. I make a similar expression as the photo and it becomes a little more obvious, but still not much.
Bennet cuts in, “As Luis and I are biracial, some of the features are not as obvious. But there are signs.”
“So how did you figure out Luis?” He asks Bennet.
“He didn’t,” I say. “That day at the park, I was… following Bennet. I found out about the possibility of Jackson Adley being my biological father and was curious. Kept it to myself until our perceptive girl in there got a good look at Bennet and noticed he has green eyes. Then he put it together and told me about you. This is the first time we’ve had a chance to talk to you about it.”
“Wow.”
“That’s it? Just ‘wow’?” I’m a little addled at how well he’s taking it. “When I found out I threw things.”
Jackson shrugs, “I mean, I’m shocked. And maybe I’m still processing. But I also never put a lot of thought into who my father might be. I don’t remember ever being curious even. I had everything I needed right here until my mother died.”
“My mother’s death is how I found out, actually. I was going through her stuff and some clues led me to him.”
“I haven’t even gone through my mom’s stuff,” he admits.
“I propose that we all do a DNA swab to confirm our suspicions,” Bennet suggests.
“I’m down,” I say.
“That’s fine with me, but why don’t we just ask him?” Jackson asks, and I’m curious what his answer is going to be.
Bennet hesitates. “My father… is not a good man.”
I scoff, an involuntary response to the understatement of the century.
Bennet looks at me curiously. “Did you have something to share?”
I shake my head. “Not yet.”
He sighs, frustration evident on his face. “It would be nice to have all of the pieces of the puzzle when or if we decide to approach him.”
“And why would we do that?”
