Three years later

 

Angel sat in a leather armchair. Looking at her from behind his desk was the latest in a long line of doctors she’d met with over the past year. They all had different titles and specialties, some she couldn’t even pronounce. But they all had one thing in common—they would build up her hopes, just to dash them the next time she met with them.

This one wasn’t so bad. At least he didn’t bullshit her. He gave it to her straight. The brass plate on the wall outside his door read Pediatric Oncologist.

“Ms. Wells, there’s no way to sugar coat this. You’re not a match.” He watched her reaction. “I’m sorry.”

She exhaled her breath. “And TJ?”

He shook his head. “No, I’m sorry.”

She felt like she’d had the rug pulled out from under her. Again.

“If they’d been identical twins—”

“I know,” she said. “Fraternal twins only have a one in four chance of matching. I know the statistics.”

“Again, I have to remind you the father still has a good chance of being a match.”

She looked out the window. “The father…” she stopped. How does one explain that there was a fifty-fifty chance that he was either an outlaw biker she had no contact with anymore or he was a man who had raped her and has been lying dead in a ravine for several years? She looked back at the doctor. “Yes. I had hoped it wouldn’t be necessary to… to find him. But this leaves me no choice.”

“Of course we will continue to try to find an unrelated donor that matches, but as you know, the number of people willing to even be screened for bone marrow transplants are very low and—”

“Yes. Yes, I know.” She looked down in a trance.

“Ms. Wells, can my staff help you locate the father? Perhaps an internet search or—”

She snapped out of it. “No thank you, Doctor. He’s…he’s not the type to have one of those Facebook pages. I’ll try another way.”

“Are you sure?”

She got up to leave, but then turned back. “How long do we have?”

He looked her in the eye. “The sooner, the better. She’s in remission now, but there are no guarantees how long that will last.”

She nodded and walked out.

***

Angel walked into Melissa’s room. There were pictures of kittens taped to the walls. The hospital bed made her daughter look that much smaller than her little two-year-old body should have looked. She was so small for her age anyway. The illness did that to her.

Leukemia.

She hated that word. It had occupied her every thought for the last eight months that they had been fighting it. Ever since the day she had noticed the small lump on the back of her precious daughter’s neck.

The rounds of chemotherapy had left her little head bald, and the radiation had done a job on her, too. Her only hope now was a bone marrow transplant. But they had to find a donor that was a good match if they wanted her to have the best chance.

Angel leaned down and kissed her daughter’s forehead. “Mommy’s here, Melissa. I have to go away for a day or two, but Aunty Nana will be here with you. I love you, baby girl.”

She knew her daughter was sleeping from the medications and probably didn’t even know she was there, but Angel always talked to her anyway.

She straightened and left the room, heading down to the waiting area. Her mother’s sister, Natalie waited there. When Angel entered, Natalie rose from the chair she had been sitting in, adjusting TJ on her hip.

Angel walked over and took her son in her arms. She tousled his blond curls and looked into his big blue eyes. “How’s Mommy’s little man? Are you being good for Aunty Nana?”

He nodded, and then wrapped his arms around her neck and gave her a big hug.

Angel squeezed him tight and smiled. “You always know when Mommy needs a big hug, don’t you sweetie? What would I do without you?”

“Well, what did he say?” Natalie asked.

Angel just shook her head; she tried to fight the urge to burst into tears.

“Oh, sweetheart. I’m so sorry. I was so hoping…” Natalie started to get choked up.

They hugged each other.

“I have to go to California,” Angel whispered.

Natalie pulled back. “To look for him?”

Angel nodded. “I only pray he’s their father. And that he’ll help us.”

“I’ll watch over Melissa. I won’t leave her side. TJ and I will be fine.”

“No,” Angel said, shaking her head. “I have to take TJ with me.”

“With you? But why?”

“So he can get a look at him. It might convince him. TJ looks so much like him. At least…at least I think he does.”

“Angel, I thought you told me you couldn’t be sure, with everything that happened to you.”

She turned to her aunt. “You think I’m only seeing what I want to see?”

Natalie nodded.