Jesse poked at the green gelatin and watched it jiggle in the little round bowl. It was about the most unappetizing thing that she’d ever seen, but for some reason, she had put it on her tray in spite of its looks. Most of the plastic-covered items on her tray were leftovers from the day. It was too late for the kitchen to be open. They had been gracious enough to sell her their overstock. Jesse was trying to be appreciative, but it was very hard when what she really wanted to do was walk out the front door of the hospital and never come back.

“Hey.”

The familiar voice was a surprise. Jesse glanced up at her friend Aria and felt nothing but relief. “Hey yourself. What brings you here? The food?” Jesse poked at the piece of fried chicken beneath its tight plastic wrapping.

“Oh, for sure.” Aria plopped down into the chair across from Jesse. “More like you brought me here. I came with Laredo, but Cal said you were down here after an incident.”

“Incident,” Jesse mused. “That’s one way to put it. More like the woman who adopted me after my parents’ deaths is now blaming me for what were apparently my mother’s poor romantic choices.”

“You know,” Aria said slowly. “We’ve all talked about Joe Hernandez and his sins, but nobody has really talked about how you feel about your mother’s.”

“What do you mean?” No. Jesse didn’t really want to talk about her mother. She didn’t want to admit what had to be the truth. Who wanted to face something like that about their parent?

Aria sighed. Then she reached over and picked up a gelatin square between her index finger and her thumb. She lifted it to her mouth and made a big show of swallowing it down. “You loved your parents. I think that’s pretty normal. Don’t you? And obviously, your mother had a relationship of some kind with Joe Hernandez. But we don’t know what that was. We don’t know why. And everyone is treating her like some kind of whore. That isn’t fair.”

“She kept journals,” Jesse said heavily. She reached for the banana cream pie and ignored the rest of the food on her tray. Using a fork, she slit the plastic open and then began scraping the meringue off with a fork. “I found them in the house. But the very first and the very last are missing. Someone took them.”

“Who?” Aria frowned. She snagged another piece of gelatin and swallowed it down. “Who would do that?”

“Avery.” Jesse felt so certain of this that she could even hear the resolve in her own voice. “In the room upstairs, I saw her with a handkerchief. She was mopping up her face with it. It’s a beautiful piece of needlework that my mother’s dear friend Mrs. Farrell made for her.”

“Mrs. Farrell?” Aria frowned. “Are you talking about Melody’s grandmother? Like Cisco’s Melody?”

“Yes. I told Melody that I remember her grandparents. I even remember them talking about her mother. They were close to my parents. I think my mom missed her parents. The Farrells became like stand-in parents to her.”

“So, Melody’s grandmother—that’s so weird, by the way—makes some fancy needlepoint handkerchiefs for your mother, and you find them in Avery’s possession all these years later?”

“Yes!” Didn’t Aria get what this meant? “Someone had to pack up my parents’ house. Right? Cal says he doesn’t remember who it was but that it was likely either his mother or his father. If Avery really felt that much animosity toward my mother, do you really think she was going to let her husband anywhere near my mother’s stuff?”

“Okay, you have a good point there.” Aria finished off the gelatin and reached for a little dish of carrots. “No woman is going to want her husband anywhere near his former lover’s stuff. Not even when that lover has just died in some mysterious accident. Did Joe say anything about that before he passed?” Aria sounded irritated. “I still think it’s weird that nobody has ever told you exactly what happened that night.”

“I suppose I need a police report.” It seemed like such an obvious place to start that Jesse wondered why she had never thought about it before.

“Then, that’s your next step,” Aria pointed out.

Jesse slurped up half the pie filling in one bite. It tasted like very fake banana, but it was at least edible and took the edge off the ache in her belly. “And this whole thing with Avery and Cal’s family? What about that?”

“You love Cal.” There was a quiet note of finality in Aria’s voice. “We’ve always known that. You never say it. But I’ve known it as long as I’ve known you. And that’s a long time now. Everyone knows it. They don’t talk about it, but it isn’t a surprise.”

“Now everyone is convinced that I’m Joe Hernandez’s child.”

“Are you?”

“I don’t know.” Jesse felt so conflicted. “That’s a long time to have an affair.”

“Yes. It is.”

“But I look as much like my dad as I do my mom.”

Aria was already nodding. “Yes. You look like Rawling Collins. Don’t you think it’s possible that Joe just liked you and felt a connection to you because you reminded him of his lost love?”

“That’s creepy as hell, but maybe.” Jesse put her hands over her face. “Ugh! I don’t know what to think.”

“Do you need a paternity test? Some kind of DNA testing?” Aria asked quietly. Her friend was munching carrots as though she were just as fond of them as the horses she loved so much. “I think anyone would understand if you said you did.”

“I don’t want to know.” The words slipped out, and Jesse felt as though she might cry. “I don’t want to know the truth if it means that Cal is off-limits to me. I would feel so lost and so—I don’t even know how to describe it! It would be awful.”

“But that’s not like you.” Aria reached across the table and took Jesse’s hand. “This is your chance to know for sure. It wouldn’t be quick like the movies, but it probably wouldn’t take months either.”

“And what would happen if I took that test and then I knew? Would anything change?” Jesse was feeling panicky. Of course things would change! How could they not? They would change because she would change. She would know the truth about her relationship to Joe Hernandez. And that would put a firm and unshakable set of boundaries on her relationship with Cal.

“You love Cal.”

“Yes.”

Aria shrugged. “Then, you need to know. Not just feel like you know, but actually know. You need to have no doubts. That way the two of you can either move forward or decide not to, but you can do it because you know the truth.”

“It’s scary,” Jesse admitted.

Aria threw a carrot at Jesse. “Don’t be a coward. You’ve done way scarier stuff than this.”

“You carroted me!” Jesse said indignantly. Without a second thought, she flicked a blob of meringue at Aria. It landed on her right cheek.

Aria reared back and opened her mouth wide with shock. Then she started laughing. The two of them laughed together until Jesse felt as though she might start weeping. It was so good to sit here with a friend and feel normal.

“You’re right,” Jesse whispered. “I should just ask for the test and be done with it.”

“Then, I look forward to hearing the results.” Aria stood up. “But I think we should go back upstairs now. You’re obviously not going to eat the rest of that.” Aria gestured to the contents of Jesse’s tray.

“Do you blame me?” Jesse poked at the chicken. “I feel like it’s going to get up and walk off the plate.”

“That would make it zombie chicken,” Aria said with grave sincerity. “I don’t think we need to worry about that. This isn’t that kind of hospital.”

The two women continued to laugh and joke together as they headed upstairs. In the elevator, they began to make jokes about funny things to do in an elevator when you knew you were being videotaped. Then it moved from there to would you ever make out in an elevator when you knew you were being videotaped.

Jesse didn’t have another moment’s misgiving until she saw the pale blond wood door of that family waiting room. Avery’s voice could be heard inside. She was shouting about something.

Reaching out, Jesse caught hold of Aria’s arm. “I can’t go in there.”

“Why not?” Aria’s voice was fortified with iron. “You were adopted by those people. And as I recall, they were pretty insistent about it even though it wasn’t necessary.”

“Yeah.”

“So, you have a right to be there,” Aria insisted. “Just because Avery Hernandez has her nose all bent out of joint because she found out that her husband was having an affair with your mother at some point in ancient history—because that is a long time ago, sweetie. It isn’t your fault!”

Jesse knew that Aria was right. It still just felt so wrong and so very frightening to walk in there. Then Aria grabbed Jesse’s hand and held on tight. She reached for the doorknob and turned the latch. Then the two women walked in together.

The room was filled with the five Hernandez brothers, Maggie, and Avery. Avery was zooming around in circles as she spoke emphatically about some aspect of the preparations. That was all Jesse could determine from the jumbled and garbled conversation going on. Jesse barely managed to make eye contact with Cal before all hell seemed to break loose.

Avery stopped quite suddenly in her tracks. She pointed dramatically at Jesse and gave an agonized sigh. “What is she doing here?”

“Jesse came to request a paternity test,” Aria said calmly.

Jesse might have been mistaken, but she was almost certain that Aria shot a half-defiant look in Laredo’s direction as she said these words. The whole room went silent as the grave, which was a very apt description under the circumstances.

But Aria wasn’t finished rocking this boat. In fact, she gave it a violent shake. “This way we can all stop speculating about what actually happened.” Aria pointed at Laredo. “I think we all know that something happened. But until we get some real science involved, it’s all just wild speculation and suspicion. So, instead of giving into that kind of nonsense, let’s do this right and find the truth.”

There was a very long and painful pause. Then Avery Hernandez pointed her index finger at Aria. “How dare you suggest such a thing?”

“What are you afraid of?” Jesse asked suddenly. She had figured Avery would welcome the opportunity just because it would either prove or disprove the question that everyone seemed so intent on beating to death. “Are you afraid that I am Joe’s daughter and therefore I’m living proof that he loved someone else more than he loved you? Or are you afraid that I’m not and that you upset Joe for nothing, which in turn caused him to have another heart attack and die? Because I totally understand how you could be worried. Your conscience must be a delicate thing right now, Avery Hernandez.” Jesse could not believe she was saying this stuff out loud. “But at some point, you’re going to have to look in the mirror and be honest with that person staring back at you.”

There was nothing else to say. There was nothing else to be said. The only thing left was to leave the hospital. Of course, Jesse had to find a way to convince the pathologist to do a paternity test using DNA material. But hopefully Cal or Laredo or someone else in the family would help her out with that.

Cal seemed to shake himself awake. Or that was Jesse’s perception of things as she stood and stared very pointedly at him. Then Met reached over and pressed a set of keys against Cal’s shoulder. Cal took the keys and headed for the door without another word to anyone, not even Jesse.

He didn’t speak again until they were almost all the way to the truck. It made for a very uncomfortable journey through the empty hospital and an even more awkward trek through the parking lot. But maybe none of that mattered. Because when they finally got back to the truck, Cal opened the passenger door for her and helped her very carefully up into the vehicle. Then he reached in and put his hand on her shoulder.

“You did the right thing, Jesse,” Cal said in a low voice. “I’m proud of you.”

It might have been condescending coming from anyone else, but somehow, Cal had always existed outside those expectations and reactions for her. So, instead of feeling insulted, she felt validated. It was exactly what she needed.