Never the Right Time

Chapter 37 Mark's POV

I spent one more day at the hospital. The doctors were convinced that I could go home and recuperate at home and made me a follow up appointment with a neurologist next week. Going home made the world of a difference since I finally felt comfortable in my own bed. Emma unfortunately had to stay for another couple of weeks. Those first few days were hard on everyone. Rebecca was trying her best to ferry me back and forth from the hospital to home to see Emma and then stay with Emma at night. I could see the toll it was taking on her. I hated that I was unable to help more, and tried to do everything I could at home to make it all work.

Emma finally came home after two weeks in the hospital. My parents decked her room out in flowers and stuffed animals. She was so happy to see it all. She was still very much recovering at home. It broke my heart to see her so broken. Rebecca was able to take a break from us and I took care of everything at home. Emma was still sleeping a lot. We set her up with a television and a Nintendo so that she wouldn't get too bored. My mom came over a couple times a week just to help with the random chores, so that I wouldn't have too much on my plate since I was recovering too.

After a month, both Emma and I had found a good routine. She was also able to go back to preschool. She was so excited to go that she was bouncing around the house singing about going back to school. We couldn't help but laugh at our antics. I was finally able to go back to work. The doctors had been concerned about me staring at a computer screen all day, so they forced me to take time off. I still wasn't able to drive, but my boss was understanding and was fine with me working from home. I felt like singing along with Emma on my first day back too.

After another month, I finally got my cast off and was able to drive. I had to do weekly physical therapy. It hurt like hell, but I wanted to be able to workout again so it was necessary. Even though I was able to drive again, my boss gave me the option to continue working from home. I loved the freedom it gave me because if there was a day that I needed to take Emma, I could as long as my projects were still submitted. Emma seemed to be thriving after fully recovering. It was as though the accident never happened. Rebecca and I were also doing really well. We had started to talk about the possibility of getting married and having more kids. It felt as though the accident had brought us that much closer together. 

One day seemingly out of the blue, my parents asked if I could come over to dinner. They had something they needed to talk to me about and wanted to do it without Rebecca and Emma. It seemed weird, but I went along with it.

Things seemed off when I walked into the house. My dad told me they ordered Chinese and wanted me to sit down. They had something important to talk to me about. My mom was clearly worried as she sat there with her eyes downcast while wringing her hands. Clearly one of them is dying.

I hesitantly sat down eyes darting between them.

"What's going on guys?" I asked unsure if I wanted to answer

"Mark, this is going to be really hard to tell you. You need to promise to go into this with a clear head so you can handle it accordingly." My dad started

"Ok...?"

"We've done a lot of research into blood types and such since the accident and Emma's blood type problem."

"Ok?" Still unsure where he was going with this.

"We don't-" he started before taking a deep breath " We don't think Emma is your baby."

It was as though I had been doused in ice water. I jumped up eyes darting between them . Mom was watching me with caution in her eyes and dad just look sad.

"Mark, sit and I'll explain why we think this better so its easy to understand it."

"No you're wrong!" I shouted

"Mark" mom finally spoke, "Please sit down. I know this is hard to hear, but let us explain and then you can take that information and go from there." She said softly.

The tone of her voice, stopped the racing thoughts. I sat down and held my head in my hands and taking a moment for myself before looking at them to continue. Dad took a deep breath before continuing.

"There has always been slight things that were different about Emma that set her apart from you. We just assumed that it was from Rebecca's genetics. So didn't really look closer. Then the accident happened and it caused us to start looking much closer. Emma has a rare blood type and was a cause for concern. Especially since you and Rebecca don't share her blood type at all. We initially thought it was odd, but maybe it could be passed down from genetics like everything else. This time it was a little easier to look into because it was quantifiable and we found that blood type is directly related to parents and no one else."

Dad pulled out a paper with a graph on it. He spread it out in front of me.

"Look, here are the different blood type each combination can create." He said pointing to the graph, "You're type A, which you got from me, and Rebecca is type O. Here is tells you which blood types those combinations can create."

I felt all the blood drain from my face. The only blood type Emma could have would be A or O definitely not B.

"No. No." I stood shaking my head "This can't be true."

My mom rushed to me pulling me into her arms. She stroked my hair as I sobbed into her arms. I couldn't think straight anymore and just broke down. What the hell was I going to do?