Save Room For Us (18+)

Chapter 36: Start of Something New

This story is almost over!! I am proud that I was able to get through a full length story! I never wrote this many words in my life. This story has just reached 100k words which is a huge accomplishment!! I have different story plots for different characters in this universe. I already have two published on my account with a couple of chapters. I will slowly update those before I start publishing the next couple with these group of friends! Anyways, please enjoy this chapter!

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SweetDumplingss

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Chapter 36:  "Start of Something New"

Nevaeh

In a few hours, I would be on a plane headed to Atlanta, Georgia, to meet my birth father—the man I'd never known, the man I'd only recently discovered even existed. It felt surreal, even as I sat there trying to remind myself that this was real. This wasn't some fantasy or daydream where everything worked out perfectly. No, this was real life, and in real life, things were messy. I didn't know what to expect, but there was no way to turn back now.

I couldn't spend another day wondering about him, wondering about what I had missed. I couldn't let the curiosity and the questions gnaw at me forever. I was scared—terrified, really—but I also knew that if I didn't face this now, I would spend the next decade imagining a thousand different versions of what this moment might be. The unknown had always haunted me, and now I had to confront it head-on.

Before I left for Atlanta, though, there was something I had to do. Someone I had to face. Or, more accurately, some people.

I was standing on the edge of a chapter in my life that I had never expected to have to close. I was standing on the precipice of finally saying goodbye to Samantha's memory and everything that came with it. In order to move forward, I knew I had to talk to her adoptive parents one last time, to put things to rest in my heart. To know for sure that the grief I carried for years—the guilt and the weight I still felt every time I thought about that night—wasn't mine to carry alone.

Samantha's mom, Heather, and her dad, Keith, were waiting for me at a small café near their apartment in New York. The fresh smell of pastries trickled my noise, inviting me in. The warmth of the café comforted me like a blanket as if it was preparing for what was about to happen. The moment I walked in, Heather, who didn't look much different from the last time I saw her, stood up. Her eyes were soft but still shadowed with years of pain. I could see it in her posture, in the tightness around her mouth. Samantha's death had left a hole in their world, one that could never fully be patched.

I felt myself stiff, unsure of how to greet them. The last time I saw them, we had parted on such strained terms. I never thought I would find the courage to face them. But here I was, about to do the hardest thing I'd ever had to do.

Heather's voice broke through my thoughts.

"Nevaeh," she said gently, pulling me into a hug which shocked me. I tried not to flinched underneath her touch. Her arms were warm and familiar, but they carried the weight of years of unspoken words. "I'm so glad you came." Looking closer at her, I noticed that her hair grayed more as she aged though it only had been five years. She wore a pink sweater and deep blue jeans.

I nodded, fighting the lump in my throat. I knew this was important, but it still felt like too much to bear. I sat down, taking a deep breath as I tried to steady my shaking hands. Keith, always the quiet one, watched from his seat across the table. His hair seemed to be the same but still had grays around the edges. His face was weary, but his eyes were kind behind his glasses. He wasn't angry. He never was. But Heather—she had been.