Genetica

CHAPTER 5 ADDIE

CHAPTER 5

ADDIE

         I just don't know how Lexi and I will survive without daddy. He was our only parent. I am so glad that I have Lexi but I want my dad back! Logically my brain processed that he died, I saw him die and held his hand while he was dying. I was at the funeral and I saw him buried in the Wetherington family grave. If that wasn't enough, his photo and ours have been splashed across the news daily. My emotional brain keeps expecting him to come home any time and to send me a text! I keep saying to myself, I have to tell Daddy about....and then I remember that I can only tell him at his gravesite. Each and every time, it hits me like a ton of bricks!

        I don't understand why Jessica's mom hired an attorney. That attorney filed a lawsuit against Genetica and against my dad's estate. Lexi and I know nothing. Maybe our biological mother donated eggs and the wrong embryos were given to the wrong woman. Or maybe Lexi and I were the wrong embryos given to our mom. Part of me is so sorry that Lexi ever went on Ancestry and found out that we have a few siblings out there in the world. It has been wonderful getting to know Kenzie and the triplets. It is really nice to have sisters and we bonded immediately. However, I don't know how this will all end. Will we all be sad and disappointed? Will we find out secrets that were better left unknown? Jessica is sweet but it is difficult for Lexi and I to be around her because she doesn't really talk about her mother. And we don't know if she is telling her mom about anything we talk about. I am glad that Jess' dad is her biological dad.

         Right now, Lexi and I are a mess. We cry nonstop, we are overwhelmed by the media attention, and we have a lawsuit to contend with! Dad's attorney is now our attorney. He hired the bodyguards and he is helping us navigate through our new lives without our father. He is also representing us in the lawsuit. Genetica's insurance company has an attorney to represent the now megabusiness that Genetica was absorbed into years ago when dad sold his company.

        Daddy has been gone for about three months and our lives are still crazy. The media circus has died down a bit. I suspect that someone is feeding them information to keep it going. It has to be Jessica's mother. I know it isn't the triplets or their parents. Jessica's mom's attorney contacted them and asked them if they wanted to sue Genetica but they refused. Deb, Daria, and Dana call us or text us everyday to check in. Their parents also call us every few days. They are both so sweet, they only want to help us in anyway possible. Kenzie also texts with us daily. I think that, of all of us, she is use to being alone and independent.

        Today I am going to hunt for my dad's journals. I had sort of forgotten about them. Lexi and I are keeping the journals to ourselves. Who knows what is in them? I am really hoping that there is some information in them about our mother. I would like to know her name, what she looks like, where she grew up, and if she had any siblings.

         I told Lexi that I was going to start looking in Daddy's den for his journals. She just came down to help me. Daddy's office was a sort of refuge for me. His door was always open to us. I looked around the walls which were filled with framed drawings that we made over the years! Most of our paintings and drawings had a rainbow in them somewhere. I sat down in his leather swivel desk chair and I remember him holding us both on his lap and spinning the chair. I miss everything about my dad, everything. Lexi was looking at the photos of the three of us on his desk and she got teary-eyed. I went over and hugged her. We found the Rainbow album and it was huge. I just thought that it was an album with our pictures from over the years but there was a second album on the shelf and it was thick as could be! We took it down and opened it together. We were so apprehensive but we wanted to read the information. There were also several journals on the book shelf. Part of me felt like I was trespassing on Dad's private ground but he told us to read them. I started to cry when I saw dad's handwriting. I knew he could never write again. Big breath, I told myself! He saved all of our rainbow drawings and used them as the book covers for these journal albums. He was such a caring and loving dad.

        The first journal was mostly about his life in college. He was quite a looker! Dad got straight A's at Harvard and in med school. Learning and retaining information came so easily for him. He had a close friend named Xing, they seemed to have had a nerd herd that they hung around with! Dad had several really pretty girlfriends in college. Were one of them our mother? He told us that he was always a nerd, and maybe he really was but he always had a pretty girlfriend in college and medical school. We never really got to meet the women he dated as an adult parent. We always knew that his "business trips" were trips he took with his girlfriends. He just never brought them home! Xing worked with Dad at Genetica. His wife and his daughters were frequent visitors at our home for many years. However, after Genetica was sold, we really didn't see them anymore. Dad said that Xing had moved and they sort of lost contact. Xing has called us several times and offered to help in any way possible.

         The door bell is ringing and I am sure it is Daria, Dana, and Deb! Petunia and Lovey always bark when the doorbell rings. They think they are ferocious watch dogs! The girls had told us that they were coming over to see us! Kenzie was also coming over but she had to go to work first. We have a camera outside our door and I can see them making faces at us in the camera! When they are with us, it is like there are double stereos in our house. They can really talk! Dad use to say that about Lexi and I. He said that there was never a quiet moment in the house when we were home. They finish each other's sentences. Daria is concerned that they could lose their college scholarships because they had received minority student scholarships and now they don't think they are minorities anymore. They still self-identify as bi-racial. They have said that their dad is their dad, and they don't care what any DNA swab says! Their dad is a wonderful, hard-working and loving man and father. They are going to help us clean out dad's closets, we are donating his clothes to a charity thrift store. Kenzie couldn't come with them because she has to work, she has a part time job on her campus. All of their college terms end in about three weeks and we are hoping to spend part of the summer together.

         Lexi is going to tell our sisters that we are going to a rental house in San Diego for a week. In reality, we purchased plane tickets for the Bahamas. Lexi and I had to apply for passports for the girls. We already had copies of their birth certificates for the lawsuit. Then we got photos of ourselves and pretended we were each of them! Who would ever know? Our handwritings are also extremely similar! We are going to Atlantis. It is our number one favorite place to vacation. We were supposed to go with our dad this summer and we want to make the trip to honor him. It will be difficult but our dad is worth it. And it will be fun to go with our four sisters. We were on the fence as to whether or not to invite Jess but she doesn't really seem to want to be around us. She and Kenzie have gotten close but she is keeping the rest of us at arm's length. It probably has something to do with the lawsuit!

         We put away Dad's journals and pushed the open door button for the front door. Daria, Dana, and Deb came rushing in to hug us! Three girls, our mirror images, came bustling in the door. Petunia and Lovey jumped up at them. Our dogs love our sisters! The girls were hungry so they stopped and got two pizzas. When I opened the first box, I looked at Lexi as she said "Are you kidding me? You like pizza with pineapples and pepperoni on them? That is my and Addie's favorite pizza." We all started to giggle and then erupted into deep belly laughing! Kenzie showed up later after work. We almost dropped over when we saw her! She had dyed her hair jet black and it was cut in a bob, she had about ten inches cut off. She looked really pretty. She told us that she thought the media would leave her alone if she didn't look like the rest of us! But the opposite happened! The girl who was use to being alone and independent was followed everywhere! Petunia and Lovey barked when Kenzie rang the doorbell and then jumped up at her so she could pet them! Some watchdogs!

         We told the girls that everything was set for our vacation. My voice cracked when I made that comment and I started to cry. Immediately I was swallowed up in a huge embrace. Daria, Dana, Deb, and Kenzie offered to just stay at our house for our vacation week together. I told them that I would be OK, I just missed my dad.