Chapter 13
Rena
Our tickets were booked to head back to Chicago on Thursday evening, so I had the day to take care of my business with the private investigator. If I wanted to make it happen, it had to be today. I was running out of time, but I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to meet my sister. I wasn’t sure I was ready.
Still, when I woke up on Thursday, the time limit pressed on me. I could always talk to the PI and see how things worked out. I didn’t have to decide right away if I wanted to meet my sister. I didn’t have to meet her at all if I didn’t want to. Making contact with the PI would be a good idea, and I had questions I needed answered.
I emailed Morgan Taylor, asking if it was possible to set up a meeting. It was short notice, but it was worth a shot. If it didn’t work, I wouldn’t try again. If it did, it was a sign that I was doing the right thing.
After I sent the email, I sat in front of my laptop, hitting the Refresh button over and over, anxious to get a reply. This would determine whether I was going to meet my sister or not, after all.
Morgan Taylor replied only ten minutes later and told me he was happy to meet me for lunch. My stomach tightened. I was suddenly nervous. This was really happening. At the back of my mind, I had prepared myself for a rejection, or no response at best. I had prepared myself to be turned down.
But now it was happening.
A knock on my door startled me. I opened it and Brent stood in front of me. He was handsome, dressed in khaki pants and a cream-colored collared shirt that made him look put together and in charge, even though he wasn’t wearing a suit.
“I want to take you out to lunch today,” he said. “And a bit of sightseeing afterward for our last day in Boston.”
I shook my head. “I’m sorry, but I already have plans.”
Brent frowned. “What plans?”
What was I going to say to him? Was I going to tell him the truth about my past, or was I going to lie to him? I had to go to this meeting.
“It’s nothing serious,” I said.
“So, tell me.”
He was pushing this. Why was he so interested? He’d never come across as the clingy type before. Not that this was clingy at all. He only wanted to know what I was doing because I was rejecting him for lunch. I took a deep breath and sighed.
“I’m going to meet a private investigator.”
Brent raised his eyebrows, and I knew I had to tell him the full story now. I opened the door so he could step into my room. He sat down on one of the love seats in the corner and looked at me intently.
“I’m adopted. A private investigator contacted my mom and let her know I had a sister who’s looking for me. I’m here to meet with him to find out more about what’s going on.”
“That’s a lot to take in,” he said.
“Sorry.”
“No, I mean for you. I didn’t know you were adopted, obviously, but it must be hard to find out you have a sister.”
I was surprised by his reaction; Brent understood it without even knowing the full story. I had only told him a small part of it, summarizing it in the simplest way I could so he knew where I was headed. I felt bad that I’d come to Boston with ulterior motives, but Brent didn’t seem to mind at all.
“Let me come with you,” Brent said.
“What? Why?”
“Because this is tough. This PI is a stranger, and it’s always good to have support.”
He was right. I didn’t know Morgan Taylor at all, and this was going to be hard. Having Brent there could help.
“Okay,” I said after thinking about it for a moment. “But let me handle it. And don’t go all alpha male on the guy.”
The last part had been a joke. Everything was so tense right now, I needed that comic relief.
Brent seemed to understand it because he said with a wink, “I can’t make any promises. ”
I had agreed with Morgan to meet him at the Dunkin’ Donuts in town instead of going for a full lunch. I didn’t want to spend that much time with the guy, and I wanted to be able to run away if it was too much for me. I was more nervous than I thought I would be, and I was glad Brent was with me.
“What does he look like?” Brent asked when we stepped into the store.
“He didn’t say,” I said. The store had tables and chairs for customers who wanted to sit down with their loot after paying. There was no one that fit the description of PI I had in my mind, no private-eye-looking men with trench coats. There wasn’t even a man in a business suit. There was a group of teenagers, a couple, and a woman sitting at the back, neatly dressed, dark hair pulled into a bun, and flipping through a file. She looked up and waved at me. I frowned.
“She looks like she’s trying to get your attention,” Brent said.
I nodded and moved toward the woman, unsure.
“You’re Rena,” she said. “I’m Morgan Taylor.”
“Oh,” I said, taking the hand she was offering me.
“I’m glad you guessed it was me.”
“Oh, I wasn’t guessing,” Morgan said. “You’re a spitting image of your sister.”
That was unnerving. Brent introduced himself in my stunned silence, and we sat down around the little table.
“Coffee?” Morgan asked.
“I’ll get it,” Brent offered and left us alone to line up at the counter.
“You must have a lot of questions,” Morgan said.
“I don’t even know where to start,” I admitted. “How did this happen?”
Morgan nodded. “Of course, let’s start there. You and your sisters were separated shortly after birth for adoption. It’s not every day someone is willing to take on triplets.”
I stared at Morgan. “Triplets? I have another sister?”
Morgan nodded slowly. “You had more than one. Unfortunately, one of the three girls passed away due to medical complications. It was soon after the initial adoption, and the case had been investigated. There was no foul play.”
I couldn’t believe it. I had barely wrapped my mind around the idea that I wasn’t an only child; adding in another sister and a death was making me numb.
“I know this is a horrible way to find out. The adoptions were closed, so the information shouldn’t have come out at all.”
“Then why did it?” I asked.
“That’s a great question. You sister invested a considerable amount of money into this investigation. She wanted to find her birth parents, and then all the other facts came to light. She has the right contacts. Money talks, even in this world, and she managed to break the rules.”
She broke the rules even though it hurt to find these things out. It wasn’t very considerate of her to put this on me. What if I’d never wanted to know?
But the more I thought about it, the more I doubted I wouldn’t want to know. If I had tried to find my birth parents and realized I had a sister, would I have been able to walk about without knowing who they were? I wasn’t so sure.
“This is so much to take in,” I said.
Morgan nodded, sympathetic. “In my line of work, I see everything. I can only imagine what you’re going through.”
It was the second time today someone had said that to me, but I doubted it. I doubted anyone would understand what it was like if they had been adopted and put through this.
Brent returned to the table with coffee in a Styrofoam cup, and I took it from him, wrapping my fingers around its warmth. With Brent next to me again, I felt a little more stable.
“Your sister’s name is Zoe Franklin. She wants to meet you.”
I shook my head. I wasn’t ready for this.
“I don’t think I can do that,” I said. “Not yet.”
Morgan nodded.
“You can tell Zoe”—the name was foreign on my tongue—“that you found me. But I can’t meet her.”
Morgan glanced at Brent before she nodded at me again. “I understand,” she said. “Take your time digesting this. You know you can contact me if you want to take this further. I know Zoe is very eager to meet you.”
Morgan collected her things and stood up. “I have to go. I have another appointment. It was great meeting you, Rena. Brent.” She left the shop, and I was left behind in the wake of chaos her news had created. I sipped my coffee.
“Are you all right?” Brent asked. He looked concerned.
“I have no idea.”
I didn’t know how I felt about everything that had happened. I didn’t know how to process the information. How had Zoe dealt with the knowledge that she had siblings?
“Do you want to talk about it?”
I could say no if I wanted to. He wasn’t pushing me to tell him anything, and I appreciated that a lot. But I had to get it off my chest, and Brent was someone I knew well enough to be comfortable with. Especially after what we had been doing lately.
I told him what Morgan had said about Zoe and that there had been a third sister. “We were separated for the adoption to make placement more likely.”
“That makes sense, but it seems terrible to split the three of you up.”
I had to agree. What had happened that my birth mother hadn’t been able to take care of us? It was a question I had never needed answered before. I’d been happy with my mom and the home I’d grown up in.
“Do you want to meet her?”
“I do,” I said. “I don’t want to go through life knowing I have a sister and not have any contact with her. But I’m not ready yet. I’m feeling a little overwhelmed.”
Brent took my hand. His hand was large and warm when his fingers wrapped around mine. The gesture was so caring and simple, it made me want to cry. He was being there for me. This wasn’t work, and this wasn’t our new sexual relationship. I was uncharted territory, something he was under no obligation to do. But I appreciated having him here with me. I needed someone to lean on right now, and he was being a saint.
I had always thought he was hot, but this was different. This was kindness and compassion. I was getting to know a side of Brent I hadn’t seen before, and I knew I was in trouble. The more I got to know him, the more I liked him.
“There’s time,” Brent said. “You didn’t know about her for twenty-three years. Taking the time to think about it won’t change things. You will still have a sister, rather you’ll be more ready for it later.”
I nodded. “You’re right,” I said. He was being logical about it, open-minded when I couldn’t be. I took his advice because it was the best thing I had to go by right now.