Amelia's Children

Chapter 8

We all stared at him and he continued gazing down at the picture on his phone. His hands were shaking and his eyes glistened with a hint of tears. He took a deep breath as if trying to push everything down, trying not to fall apart with all of us right there watching.

"David," Will said, standing and walking over to him, "why don't you have a seat." David didn't move, so Will gently held his arm and started to guide him toward the sofa. "Come on, just sit down right here, and then we can all talk and try to figure this out."

David nodded and sat down next to me. I took one of his hands in mine and he turned toward me. "I didn't know," he whispered.

"Wait a minute," Dr. Cowart said, as he and Will both took their seats again, "you mean you had no idea you were adopted?"

"No...I knew that. I always knew that. My sister and I were both adopted, and our parents always talked to us about it. No, what I mean is I didn't know about Amelia Davis, her baby, any of this."

Will asked the next question. "So finding your birth mother was not why you came here?"

David looked at him. "I didn't know anything about my birth mother. The adoption records were sealed, and I never really tried to get access to the information. I mean...I was curious. Of course I was curious, but I had a family and I was happy, so I was willing to wait. What brought me here was something else, something I needed to investigate."

"So what did bring you here?"

Again he glanced over at me, the only person with whom he had shared that information. He seemed to be searching for some advice, but I had none to give him. "If you want to tell them, that's up to you," I said.

He looked at Will, then at Dr. Cowart, and shook his head. "No. I can't get into all of that. I only told Sarah because she started guessing some stuff. She's the one who made the Amelia Davis connection in the first place. But anyone else would think I was crazy. I'm sorry, I know you're all curious."

Dr. Cowart came over and patted David's shoulder. "Don't worry about that, son. Your business is your business. You have the right to decide who you tell and don't tell."

David nodded. "Thank you for that."

I was confused about one thing. "Um, David. You said you didn't come here looking for your birth mother. You mean you didn't suspect at all that that's what you'd find here? That that was the meaning of all of...of everything?"

"Maybe I suspected. I don't know. I think it was in the back of my mind, but it wasn't my main reason for coming here."

"And then when I told you about Amelia...and the baby..?"

"Yeah, I started putting some things together then. But I wasn't sure. I mean I thought that...if it was true...I thought I'd know."

"And now you know?"

He smiled, and I was glad to see he was starting to relax a bit. "Know? How can I know? We've got these baby pictures, but newborn babies have a way of all looking alike. So it's still hard to tell. But yeah, I'm pretty sure now. I mean it explains everything, right?"

"What do you mean it explains everything?" Dr. Cowart asked. "You mean you have an idea who killed her?"

David shook his head. "No, I don't know anything at all about that. But it explains...things."

"Okay," Dr. Cowart said, "you don't have to say anymore. You already told us it was private, so we'll just back off and let you do what you need to do. But if you need any help, feel free to ask."