Chapter Thirty-Nine
Sophie woke to the hairy warmth and rumbling snores of Ginger and Tank, taking up half of the bed. She rolled over to look out through the sliding glass doors at dawn coming up across the smooth glass of early morning Hilo Bay. Birds were waking in the banyan tree outside, and the last of the coqui frog chorus was dying down as morning lit the sky. She pillowed her cheek on her hands, gratitude and well-being filling her.
She was sleeping without blackout drapes. The depression was better, at least temporarily. And she was going to have a baby, a child of her own to love.
She’d returned late in the evening yesterday from her appointment with Dr. Wilson to find the dogs in her apartment, and a note from Jake: “Took them out for a walk and they’ve been fed. Please call me as soon as you’re ready to talk.”
Sophie had already decided that she wasn’t going to be ready to talk until she knew the baby’s paternity; whatever conclusion they might come to before that might be changed by that news.
Maybe it was time to call the clinic instead of just waiting for an email.
She’d gone to bed early after a simple meal of canned soup, and this morning her tummy was growling with hunger, not morning sickness. “Let’s go for a run, dogs, and I’ll take you out to breakfast.”
It wasn’t long before Sophie, Ginger, and Tank were jogging through the park. Sophie felt good today: energetic, strong. The faint sting of the bald patch on her scalp rubbing against the inside of her ball cap was the only reminder of recent ugly events.
And today, she wasn’t going to focus on ugly events. She was going to enjoy running with her dogs in the park and feeling good for once.
Sophie remembered that first glimpse of the tiny shape on the sonogram and felt that excitement and anticipation all over again. She was going to be a mother! She was still glad about this unexpected miracle, even with all its challenges.
What names would be good? Dad would have ideas. Perhaps something that harked back to her grandparents, gone too soon in a flu epidemic when her father was young.
What would it be like to hold her baby? To feed it?
Some things seemed impossible to imagine, even as worries crowded in—how could she work, and provide care for an infant?
Too many questions. Not enough answers. Worrying wouldn’t solve anything; it just stole any happiness she could have now.
“A useless emotion. Like guilt,” Sophie murmured aloud, remembering Connor telling her not to bother with useless emotions.
Sophie tied the dogs to a post outside the same modest restaurant where she and Alika had eaten breakfast not long ago; she still remembered telling him about her relationship with Jake, and later finding him doing a martial arts routine alone in the alley.
So many things had happened since then.
Sophie got a table right next to the window and fetched water in a bowl for the dogs, before settling in to eat a hearty breakfast, thankful that her digestive system was cooperating.
On the way back to her apartment, walking through the park, she called the clinic on Oahu that was performing the paternity test. The clerk on call established her identity, and then passed her on to one of the technicians.
“Hello, Ms. Ang. Yes, I’m glad to hear from you. I was just putting together your report and getting ready to contact you.”
Sophie’s heart pounded and she put her hand on her chest, drawing a deep breath. “Please do get that report into the mail for me. But, since I have you on the phone, do you mind giving me the information now?”
“Certainly.” Keys clicked as the woman worked her computer. “The results came in with a 98% probability that Alika Wolcott is the father of your child.”