“Are you sure you want to do this with an audience?” a doctor in his early-forties asked Kelly.

Kelly and Jake had only been in the office for a couple of minutes. The man was supposed to be giving them the results of the DNA test, which apparently, he didn’t want to give over the phone. They’d been waiting for the results for five days. Those five days were some of the longest ones in Jake’s life.

With two games, one of which took him on the road to Philly, it was excruciating to get through. There was no way Jake would leave Kelly and the kids home alone with their psycho nanny around, so they’d all gone on an overnight trip. He’d gone through and changed all the locks, but it wasn’t enough for him to feel good about leaving them at home.

Jake couldn’t deny he enjoyed all the time he was spending with his soon-to-be family, but it was clear something was hanging over them and no matter what he tried, he couldn’t shake it. He didn’t know if Kelly had trouble leaving the kids with Hannah to watch while they got the results, but Jake’s stomach felt like it was in knots. The feeling was probably both being away from the kids and anxiety about what the results would say. Everything had pretty much been spelled out for them, so it should’ve just been a technicality to hear it.

“This is my fiancé. Whatever you have to say, he can hear,” Kelly explained.

Dr. Gregory darted his eyes over to Jake for a second but turned back to Kelly before he got started. He pulled out some pieces of paper from the pile in front of him and pushed them in front of Kelly.

“You asked us to run two tests, first on the kids to prove they were siblings and then with you and one of them to prove you were related to them.”

Jake watched as Kelly leaned towards the desk to look at the papers and nodded her head along with the doctor’s words. It seemed unnecessary to repeat the initial request, but Jake didn’t bother telling the doctor to move it along.

“We ended up doing three tests.”

Kelly’s head snapped up as her brow furrowed. Jake found he was making about the same face. Neither of them said anything, but Kelly reached over and grabbed his hand, squeezing tightly.

“I’m a little confused about the results, but we can redo them if you want.”

The doctor hadn’t even revealed the results and he was asking if Kelly wanted to try them again. He didn’t hurry to say anything else, prompting Kelly to prod for more information.

“Fiona was Kirsten’s child, right? They didn’t adopt her, did they?”

Jake had thought of that possibility, so he supposed it could be why the doctor seemed so confused. Kelly had said she explained what they thought they’d find. Clearly, by the doctor’s words so far, they’d been wrong.

“That was the only test that came back as you thought. Well, at least partially. The tests showed that Simon is not her brother, so we couldn’t check to see if they have the same father.”

The details were slow and calm coming from the doctor. They seemed almost robotic in nature. Jake had no idea what to say to them, which made it a great thing that Kelly was the one they were meant for, and she was ready to respond.

“So, Simon’s adopted? That must be the other shoe Mia hinted at.”

Kelly looked over to Jake, squeezing his hand again as she did. It was hard to make out whether the smile on her face was fake or she felt some relief in the news.

Jake wasn’t sure it could be seen as good news. It probably didn’t hurt that Brian wasn’t either kids’ dad.

“It would seem he is adopted, but it’s unusual that you don’t know that,” the doctor replied.

“I don’t know why that’s weird. I wanted the tests run because I didn’t think my brother-in-law was Fiona’s father. It’s pretty obvious my sister kept some secrets from me.”

“Yes,” the doctor said, nodding his head once. “I got that idea, but this isn’t exactly something your sister could keep from you. The tests indicated Simon and Fiona are cousins. That’s why I’m confused about the results. According to them, you’re his mother. I assume if that’s the case, you’d know it, so maybe we should run the tests again.”

“You mean you didn’t already run them again?” Jake asked.

As much as he wanted to sit back and let Kelly deal with the results, he couldn’t help asking the question. There had to be something wrong with the equipment or whatever they used to run the tests.

“We ran them three times. All of them came back the same.”

“Then why offer to run it again?” Kelly asked, her voice too calm for how Jake felt.

He looked over at her, surprised to see her almost ghostly white. Her skin was usually a little pale, but she looked even more like a fresh sheet of ice.

“It seemed like the right thing to do. I take it you won’t be needing us to run it again.”

Kelly shook her head. “If you ran it three times, I’m sure it’s right. Could you give us a few minutes alone? I know this is your office and all, but I need to talk to Jake.”

“Of course. Just leave the door open when you leave.” The doctor straightened up the papers and made sure they were all in front of Kelly. “You can take these with you.”

“Thanks,” Kelly whispered as she waited for the doctor to depart.

“Why do I get the feeling that news didn’t come as a surprise to you?”

Jake got up from his chair after he heard the click of the door closing and walked to the other side of the room where the doctor had a diploma hanging proudly. Jake didn’t recognize the school, so he wasn’t sure if it was something to be proud of.

“Of course, it was a surprise. I can’t believe it’s true.”

Turning around, he saw that Kelly was staring at the papers in front of her. She’d spread them out, so she could look at all of them.

Her response wasn’t what he’d hoped for. He didn’t know what he wanted her to say, but he thought she’d say something about it couldn’t be true. Not just that she couldn’t believe it.

“But it’s possible that it is true? You have a child?”

It was one thing to have a child, but it was another thing not to know the kid you thought was your nephew was yours. Jake couldn’t wrap his head around how that was possible.

“Almost four years ago. I know you claim to not believe anything you read online, but I’m sure you got a peek into what I was like back then. I did a sixth-month intensive rehab stint to make sure the baby was born, but I signed away all rights to the baby. I had no idea what happened to it or who adopted it.”

Kelly got up from her chair but didn’t move far from it. She stared down at her feet.

“Who’s the father?”

There were a hundred questions rolling around in Jake’s head, but he thought that was the most important. She clearly didn’t know Simon was hers, which seemed impossible.

“My agent at the time. I told everyone I didn’t know, so they wouldn’t go looking for him to ask if he wanted the baby.”

She looked up to catch Jake crinkling his forehead as he thought about her answer. There was still a part of him that wanted someone to pop into the room and tell him it was all a joke, but he didn’t think Kelly would go along with something like that.

She had a kid. Simon was her little boy. How was he supposed to feel about that? Did it change anything?

He shook his head. Things were too fresh to really dive into those questions.

“Does he know he has a kid?”

“No. There was no way I was going to let him know. I couldn’t chance him wanting to keep it. If it was a girl…” She stopped and shook her head before turning away, wrapping her arms around her thin waist. “I don’t think he was sick enough to do anything to his own daughter, but the second he got me hooked on coke, he started fucking me. I wasn’t even eighteen yet, and he was twenty-nine.”

She turned back around and her whole demeanor had changed. Jake had seen the haunted look on her face before at her sister’s funeral. She’d been talking about her sister leaving her kids to her.

“The person you see before you is because of him. I just found out that my sister has been raising my son because of him. I couldn’t let the same thing happen to my daughter, if it’d been a girl. Staying in that world with a kid wasn’t an option, and I couldn’t step away longer than the six months.”

“What happened when you went back?”

Jake wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer to that. His fists were already curled up, wanting to hit something, preferably the man who was making Jake’s fiancé relive her darkest years. There was a reason Jake had never asked too much about Kelly’s modeling days. He remembered the way her eyes made her seem so lost anytime the subject came up. He hated asking for more information, but he wanted to understand.

“Evan was more concerned about making money than my decision for extended rehab. He’d moved on to some new girl as his main breadwinner. I found a new agent, who didn’t want sex. Drugs were still easy to get, so I went back to them. At that point, I didn’t really need to keep working because of some investments, but I wanted to try to forget what I’d given away.”

“And eventually you got to the point where you passed out on a runway, and you went back to rehab.”

Jake wanted to go to her, but he continued to keep his distance. He was still confused as far as how Kirsten ended up with Simon. That didn’t really matter. He knew enough to know nothing had changed between them.

Kelly had a son. Thanks to her sister leaving her as guardian, she had a daughter too, and Jake was still willing to be the father figure in their lives.

“Yup, and in place of the drugs and modeling, I became obsessed with food. Evidently, I’ve got to have something I’m passionate about, or I can’t function.”

“Well, I promise to do what I can to keep you passionate about other things.”

Jake took six long strides towards Kelly, closing the distance between them. Her head was cast down again, but he used his right hand to lift her chin up. Her bottom lip was getting worked over as she chewed on it.

“What are you thinking?” he asked.

He looked in her gray eyes, trying to find an answer for the question. It was hard not to think about what the news meant for him. Since he was sure he’d figured that out, he could stop being an ass thinking about himself and focus on what was more important.

“What am I supposed to think? I know I’ve told you before that I don’t deserve to be a parent, and now I have proof.”

She sniffed, cluing Jake in that she was holding back tears. Her eyes looked a little red, but he didn’t see evidence of liquid pooling in them.

“Why would you say that? Of course, you deserve to be a mother.”

They’d talked about having kids of their own. He’d agreed to the idea, because he knew she’d make a good mother. Her past was what it was, but she wasn’t that same person. That person would have gotten the news about her sister’s death and checked out. Kelly didn’t do that. She stuck around, even though she knew things were going to be difficult.

“I had no idea my sister adopted my son. I didn’t even remember my own son’s birthday. I know Simon’s birthday, and I should’ve been able to put two and two together, but I decided to forget everything about that day.”

That answered one of Jake’s questions. He figured she hadn’t seen her sister during the time, so she hadn’t realized Kirsten wasn’t pregnant at the same time, but the timing should’ve stuck out. If Kelly went her usual route for dealing with things, like she said she did, it was no wonder she hadn’t worked out the timeline in her head.

“You made the right choice, sweetheart. I can’t imagine it was easy to make, but at the time, giving the baby up was right.”

She nodded. “I know that. I just don’t know what to do now. I never thought I’d see the baby again, and I’ve been living with him for almost six months. I wish Kirsten would have told me.”

There was no question that it would’ve made things easier if she had. Any kind of instructions other than leaving a will saying Kelly was in charge of the kids would’ve been a blessing.

“I’ve learned in life that things rarely happen the way you think they will. The important thing is that you have two children now, and we need to make sure it stays that way. Since Brian had no biological claim on either kid, that should put a stop to any suit by the McKinneys. They have no tie to the kids.”

Kelly shook her head. “I don’t know if that’s the case. When you were at practice earlier, I called Holcomb to tell him what we’d found out. I wasn’t sure if we’d get the results back in time, so I didn’t want to listen to him speculate what could happen if Fiona wasn’t Brian’s.”

Jake couldn’t blame her for the speculation thing. He waited for her to explain why she wasn’t sure the suit was behind them. She bit her lip before looking down to the desk. Jake followed her gaze but didn’t look closely at the pieces of paper. There were some words at the top and some different tables under them with numbers.

“Holcomb said biology doesn’t always matter in these cases. Since Brian claimed both kids as his legally, the McKinneys have a case. If they can prove me incompetent, it really doesn’t matter who the kids’ parents are.”

“But Simon is your son.”

Kelly lifted her head and smiled just enough to turn her lips up. She picked up one of the pieces of paper and turned it, so the words faced Jake.

“This says he is, but somewhere exists a piece of paper that says I gave up all parental rights to him. Unless I can get them reinstated, I don’t think the fact that I’m his biological mother means much.”

Jake wasn’t sure about that, and since Kelly wasn’t a lawyer, he wanted to get a second opinion. It had to make a difference that Simon was hers.

“Let’s regroup and talk to Holcomb about it. If that helps our case, we’ll make it happen. I’m sure Nina knows some judges that can help us out. She got these guys to run a test three separate times in less than half the time it’s supposed to take to do it once.”

At least that was what the internet said about DNA tests when Jake had done a little research. He was thankful they’d been able to get it done so fast. If they had to wait two weeks, they’d have both gone insane.

“You sure you still want to be part of this? I’m afraid there’s going to be more skeletons crawling out of my closet.”

Smiling, Jake took the piece of paper out of her hand and put it back down with the rest of the papers on the desk. He leaned down and gave her a brief kiss on her lips, then pulled her in close to him, so her head rested on his shoulder.

“I’ve told you at least a hundred times that I love you. Nothing we learned today changes that.”

He felt her sigh contently against him. Jake knew she didn’t feel any more settled than he did, but at least they had some answers they could hopefully use in their favor.