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Ch. 21

Maybe it was selfish to tell her. I mean, what if all it does is hurt her? I know she may have wanted to know her daughter... but I don't think she expected me. She has her perfect blonde baby with fair skin and and angelic face. But then there is me. Dark hair, splotchy skin, and a rough past. What could she possibly think of me?

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Where do I go from here?
What do I do with all of this fear?
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The silence between Sheila and I seemed to stretch on for hours, even though it had only been a minute or so. It made things even worse when the music downstairs stopped. I could hear the oh so faint murmuring if a conversation, fuzzy and unfocused, indecipherable.

I wasn't going to make the first move. All I could do was sit and wait as I stared at her shoulder length curly hair. The skin around her eyes was pulled tight displaying years of worry in memorized patterns of wrinkles that were just visible, even when the skin was relaxed.

Her eyes bloomed with tears as she looked over the file. With shaking hands she closed it and sat it on the coffee table in front of her.

"What do you want me to do?" She asked in a hiccuping lilt.

"I— I just wanted to know if you think—"

"I have spent years, wondering. Years packed away in this house thinking 'oh god, she could be anywhere!' And now you're here. And I don't know what to do!"

"I don't know. But I thought we deserved to at least know the other exists."

"We— well we, we don't know anything! This is all just some speculation!" Her feet were pulled as close to the chair as her calves would let her go and her hands were gripping their opposite elbows with white knuckles.

"I wanted to know if you think it would be worth it to try and get a DNA test done. I deserve to know who my birth mother is."

"You said you found this after your mother died. That was what, a month or two ago. You've only known you were adopted for a few months and, and you— You had real parents!! So they didn't give birth to you, they were still real!" She seemed jittery and abrasive to say the least.

"Yes..." I said slowly trying to remind myself that she didn't know. She didn't know the trauma I'd had to endure and that was probably a good thing. No one would ever truly want to k ow that the kid they gave to a good family hadn't actually had good family.

"But that's the thing, they're gone. I don't have any family any more... I guess I'm just trying to find what I may have left... I brought a test. All we would have to do is swab your cheek and we can send it in."

"That's it?" She asked looking saddened and nervous and overwhelmed.

"That's it. Simple as that." She nodded and I grabbed my bag as quickly as I could without jostling my leg. When I got the kit out she grabbed it and swabbed her cheek as calmly as she could.

"How do we send it in?" She asked.

"Well, whenever Lip and I start home we can drop it off. The results shouldn't take long, a couple hours maybe."

"Results for what?" Said a steely voice from the kitchen. I looked over and was gobsmacked at the girl standing there. Black rimmed eyes, black hair, black clothes, and a chain that connected her ear to her nose. A raw looking tattoo on her arm spelled out something I couldn't quite see. Karen.

"Holy shit," I said.

"What are you getting results for, why are you in my house, and why are you talking to my mom?" She asked harshly, her eyes flashing back and forth between the two of us.

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Hello everyone!! I know it has been so long and this chapter is so short and I am so sorry!! I have been having the hardest time trying to write this one for some reason! I left it at a cliff hanger I know but it's not a big one. Hopefully I can continue it soon or start another story as a sequel. But I'm going to take a break and try to focus on a different story completely and maybe that'll get my creative juices flowing.

Have a great day!!!
Drop4Lunar