Songwriter

Chapter Four

Destiny's POV

"Sh-Shawn, I-I c-can't d-do this!" I protested, my chest tight with anxiety. I began to hyperventilate at the thought of being on stage with Shawn, even if my mom would be there just in case and so would Andrew and Ian, but I was so absolutely mortified. "Des, this is your song. We wrote this together. I need you there with me to perform it." Shawn begged and pleaded. "Why c-can't C-Camila s-sing it with you?" I squeak in response. "Camila's in Italy." Shawn informs me, and I groan. "Sh-Shawn, I-I c-can't s-sing." I press on, but Shawn won't hear it."Yes you can, Des, you're an amazing singer." "What about me, Shawn? I can sing." Sydney buts in, leaning against the door way with her swollen stomach poking out. There was no denying she was expecting in a few months. "Sydney-" Shawn starts, but the mom to be cut him off. "I know, I'm not supposed to be here, but I got the paternity test back." She cuts him off, and Shawn goes red in the face. "You could've killed the baby!" Shawn starts, but I grab his arm and give him a warning look. Shawn bites his tongue, and Syd hands him the envelope. It was still perfectly sealed. "I wanted to open it with you." Sydney admits, and Shawn turns to me. "If I'm a dad, you have to sing with me, but if I'm not a dad, you can sing with me, Sydney." Shawn proposes, and I hesitantly nod along with Sydney. I watch as Shawn's shaking hands reach for the top of the envelope, tearing it open. He pulls out the piece of paper, going over the punit squares, and trying to figure out what that was before he read the explanation below. "Okay, the first square is the parent's DNA matching up as what the baby's DNA actually is. The second square is what Sydney and I's DNA would be if we had a baby. The top part is Sydney's DNA, and the side is my DNA, and on the first square is the side is the Dad's DNA. The inside would be the child's DNA. Okay, let's see, Sydney has brown hair and brown eyes, and so does the dad. That means the baby does too. Sydney, this doesn't mean anything. This could be anyone." Shawn says, looking up. "Go to the next page. Those are just physical features." Sydney urges, and then Shawn flips to the next page. "More punit squares. Okay, this time it's actual blood types. Okay, you're AB+ and I'm... oh, I didn't know I had A+. Okay, anyways, the first square is... A+ as well. That's a coincidence." Shawn said, and I looked at Sydney. We both knew he was her baby's dad, but he just wasn't accepting it. "Let's look at the next page." Sydney suggested, and Shawn flipped to the last page. Shawn began to read it out loud, "After careful evaluation, we have come to the conclusion that the paternity in question of this child does in fact have the same DNA crossing of the two parties submitting their DNA. In this rare case that the mother did submit her DNA with the father's we were able to determine which party the DNA of the child belonged to. The DNA of this child is 60% paternal and 40% maternal. Congratulations two the two new parents who have submitted their DNA for testing." Shawn finished reading, and looked up. "See, I'm not a father. There was only a 60% match." He reasoned, and I gave him a concerned look. "Sh-Shawn... the other 4-40% was S-Sydney." I reminded him cautiously, and he glanced back at the paper before turning ghost white. "Destiny, while Shawn copes with the information I've known all along, I got our results back too." Sydney says, holding up another envelope. "I never knew my mother, and you never knew your father. We look the same and have the same birthdays. Ready to see why?" Syd asks, and I nod. We tear open the envelope together, and look through the punit squares, only to find what we thought all along. "I h-have a twin s-sister." I stutter, and Sydney smiles at me. "I have a twin sister!" "We could have twins..." Shawn mutters, and we look back at him. He was holding two bundles of paper. "One says 'A' and the other says 'B.' They have the exact same information on both pages." Shawn says in a monotone. "Let's call the hospital..." Sydney urges, and then pulls her phone out. She hits a few buttons, and then you hear the dial tone as she puts it on speaker. "Los Angeles Hospital, this is Sadie speaking, how may I help you?" The lady says as she answers. "Hi, my name is Sydney McClain, my birthday is May 24th, 2001, and I had a paternity test done for my expectant child. I had a question about the results." Sydney explains, rubbing her face. "Yes, Sydney, I see that in your file. What question did you have?" Sadie asks, and Sydney takes in a breath. "When I was looking over the results, there were two packs of paper. One was labeled Baby A and the other was labeled Baby B. Why is that?" She asked, and I held my breath. "It says here there were supposed to be three packets sent. I'm sorry, I'll have them send you that third packet. I know you must be worried about your third baby." The room fell silent. "Ma'am? Are you still there?" Sadie asked, and she struggled out a yes. "Did you say... third...?" Sydney asked, and the lady responded with a yes. "Is everything alright?" She asked, and Sydney gave a struggled response. "I was only aware... of one child..." Sydney said, and the lady gasped. "Oh, I'm sorry, ma'am. I wasn't aware of that. I'll have Dr. Manning call you back soon, see if he can explain this." Sadie says, and then Sydney ends the call. "Shawn-" Sydney starts, but Shawn jumped up and stormed out of the room. "I'll t-talk t-to him, S-Syd." I say, chasing after Shawn. As I was rushing out the door I could hear my twin sister say, "I'm having triplets..." in a dazed tone.