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“What doesn’t?” Tricia looked alarmed when I alluded to a margin of doubt regarding Erin being her long-lost daughter.
Taking a cup from the cabinet, I poured boiling water into it and dunked the teabag to defuse it quicker. I carried the drink over and placed it on the low table beside her, sat down, and held her hand.
“Look, let’s wait and see what comes out of this. I’ve sent what I received to our vetting guys now. They’re a top team. Some are ex-intelligence officers from the military and have incredible research skills. It won’t take them long to dig into this, and hopefully they’ll come up with more answers.”
“Tell me about the girl, what else did she say?”
“It wasn’t a long email,” I warned. “I’ve told you what I know, we’ll just have to wait.” I held back on the Baltimore connection and that both her parents were dead because I felt concerned about how Tricia would react to it. She was drained, anxious, and her lips were dry from dehydration. “Have you had anything to drink today?” I asked, nodding toward the steaming hot tea. Taking her hand from mine, she picked up the teacup and sipped some of the brew.
“I can’t remember… can’t concentrate,” she said in a flat tone.
“I suspected as much. You look exhausted. Did you sleep much last night?”
“Maybe an hour or two.” She shrugged, helplessly.
“Give me five minutes to tie up a couple of things from the office. Drink the tea, then I’m taking you back to bed.”
* * *
For an hour I lay awake spooning with Tricia close to my chest as she slept cocooned in my arms. The one underneath her had gone numb, but I didn’t care because her steady breathing as she slept was worth it. I was concerned because the last thing she had needed was for her health to suffer on top of everything else.
My thoughts were scattered and I had what had become a familiar tight feeling in my chest again. The timing of the girl’s contact worried me, and it made me consider whether Tricia had been having second thoughts about confronting her mom in light of this.
My cell buzzed somewhere in the distance, but thankfully I’d kept it on vibrate so as not to disrupt Tricia’s sleep. Easing my arm slowly from beneath her, I made it out of bed and tiptoed quietly into the sitting room. Finding my cell, I saw a message from Richard and called him back.
“Got all registered births for a week either side of the date you gave me, and all adoption papers filed in the state of New York and matched them against the parents details we have. Nothing coming up for that name, are you sure she had the baby in New York?”
“Yeah, definitely, I confirmed that again with her,” I said in a low voice, as I sat on down on my couch and ran my hand through my hair, confused.
“Then there’s something odd about this. Could be a private adoption where the parents registered the baby as their natural child. It’s rare and illegal, but it does happen.”
“Who is that?” Tricia asked, padding out of the bedroom, her hand holding her head.
“I’ll call you back in a while, let me talk to her.” I glanced at Tricia and she still looked tired, but her eyes were wide in question.
“Come and sit here,” I coaxed, patting the seat beside me. She sat down and I turned my body to face her and took her hands in mine.
“Right, I know this is tough, but I need to take you back to the day the baby was born. Can you remember what happened after you gave birth?”
“Not a lot immediately after, I was bleeding and they didn’t give me the baby to hold. They gave me a jab to stop the bleeding and I had cramps. I wasn’t feeling well and began vomiting. There was some rushing around and someone gave me another jab of something… a sedative I think, and something for the nausea. I remember crying—being distraught—then I don’t remember much.” Tricia bit her lip and wrung her hands together, and I saw how disturbed she felt by my question.
“Can you remember anything about the paperwork?”
“Just two papers which stated I was placing the baby for adoption, it was on letter-headed notepaper, no names, but I do remember both me and my mom had to sign it, but that’s all.”
“Okay, you did great, baby. Don’t worry, I’ll get back to Richard with what you’ve told me and see if it helps him make some progress.”
After encouraging Tricia to have a bath, Rhea called to ask if I could swing by the office again and sign a couple of contracts that were pending and couldn’t wait. Tricia assured me she’d be fine while I was gone.
On the way down in the elevator, I suddenly wondered what Erin looked like. I texted her before I left the building on the cell number she had provided and asked her if she would mind forwarding a picture. The excuse I gave was that it may ‘humanize’ any appeal when approaching any potential relatives.
I had arranged to meet Rhea at the front desk in the entrance lobby of our building and quickly fact checked the two contracts that had been prepared for me to sign off. After I did this, I left the office and started again for home. A text alert came in which I knew instinctively had come from Erin.
My feet faltered and I ground to a halt when I opened the message and stood. My heart racing as I stared at the image of a woman around Sawyer’s age, who looked strikingly like her mother. Long dark blonde hair, but with hazel eyes, yet the rest of her features looked almost identical to Tricia’s. I had expected to look for some similarities, but the likeness to her mother threw me completely off-kilter.
I began walking quickly back to our apartment then stopped wondering what to do with this new piece of information I’d found. Do I just show her? Do I wait until she’s spoken to her mom? Do I wait for documentary evidence or dive straight in and share what I know with Tricia? In five days, she may have answers from her mom. Could she wait that long?
Instead of rushing back I called her therapist, Miles. After waiting on the sidewalk for eight whole minutes Miles called me back.
“Sorry, I was in session, James. I know who you are, but I’m afraid I can’t discuss anything my client says without her permission.”
I explained I understood but went on to tell him about Tricia’s decision, the visit to her parents, and Marnie’s disclosure. Once I had done this and I brought him up to speed, I asked for his advice.
“I have an emergency slot at 4:00 p.m. I’m going to call Tricia now. I will tell her you’ve called me, and I’ll suggest a couple’s session this afternoon. Does that work for you?”
“Anything works as long as she gets the support she needs to make the right choice. I don’t want her to feel pressured into meeting Erin unless she’s had time to absorb all of this. Everything is happening too fast. The last thing she needs is another event that’s going to make her feel worse.” I’d seen a picture of Erin, and after seeing what she looked like, it had left me in no doubt she was Tricia’s daughter.
“This woman has sent me a picture and you need to know, I absolutely believe that this woman is Tricia’s daughter. I’m not going to disclose this to her right now, as I am afraid she will jump at the chance to meet her without having all her facts together when she does.”
