Making It Up As We Go Along

6. Sister, Sister

Elizabeth's POV
I grab my sister's hand and lead her into her office. I needed to tell her about what I found out last night. I needed to let her know about the situation I was in now.

"Ashley, you still have the birth certificate right? The one I told you to keep?" I ask her, nervously. She nods and gets it out of her file cabinet.

"Yep, here you go." I survey my daughter's birth certificate in my hands and immediately I am assured that it actually is her.

"Ash?" I turn and look at her, holding the birth certificate in my hands. "Would you think I'm crazy if I said that I think Nellie's my daughter?" I hand her the birth certificate and show her the picture on my phone that I took with Nellie last night.

"Elizabeth? I don't think you're crazy. I think you're right. This literally matches up with what you've told me about her, plus the name matches too." "I know-that's what's crazy about it. Robbie and I are adopting her too and I-I don't know how to tell Robbie. He doesn't know I had a child! Don't get me started about Nellie- I don't want her to know that I'm her birth mom." I sit down in the chair at Ashley's desk and put my head in my hands.

"Lizzie. It's okay, they need to know. Especially Robbie, as he's your husband. I know Robbie, I know he loves you. It'll be alright, your husband needs to know these things." Ashley rubs my back and I lay my head against her. "Ash, I thought after that day I'd never have to deal with this again. Now though, I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm scared Robbie is going to want to get a divorce. I don't know what to do Ash and it's scary. I don't want to fight my past." I sigh and look down at my hands.

"Hey, hey, hey. Don't worry about it okay? What if you and I tell Robbie tonight. It can be after she goes to sleep and it would just be us. You can tell him and I'll be there for support. Besides, you guys are driving back to California tomorrow, it'll give you guys a week to talk it out." I smile at her. "Okay fine, I'll tell him tonight. I'm waiting to tell Nellie though. She's been a fan of you guys, and of me, I feel like I would just ruin it by saying 'Hey, by the way not only am I your adoptive mom, I'm your birth mom too!' I want to give it some time before I tell her, you know?"

"Yeah, I get it. You don't have to tell her yet. By the way, you can keep her birth certificate if you want it. I know you wanted me to keep it before, because it was too much for you to handle, but I know because you and Robbie are becoming her parents, you're gonna wanna keep it." Ashley hugs me and hands me back the piece of paper. "Thanks Ashley. Now, I wanna see some of the designs you've been working on, but after, could you maybe go talk to her a little bit and like see what she thinks of her birth mom, not saying my name though? I just wanna know, but I'm too scared to ask her myself." Ashley nods. "Totally understand. Just let me go get my tablet first with the designs and I'll be back." I watch my sister leave the room and I walk around the studio.

I remembered the first time I had ever been in here, after my sisters moved out of their dorms and I was moving into mine. They had so many ideas to fill this space and now, years later, it had grown into a collage of their latest and greatest looks. Awards lined the white walls, with heels stacked in a row adjacent to the marble flooring. It had always made me feel comfortable to be in here with my sisters, I was feeling that way once again. But now, after I left the doors, I'd have to do something that I couldn't fathom.

I'd have to tell Robbie the truth.