With a sigh, she tore open the envelope and pulled out the letter.
My name is Madison Wilson. According to the genealogy report, your DNA and my DNA are linked. It says you’re my birth mother. I would like to speak to you and find out why you gave me up for adoption. I would also like to learn my medical background and even see if we have anything in common. If you are willing to speak to me, please contact me at…
A cry escaped her and the memories flooded her of that terrible day. Her name was Madison. Her heart leaped with a joy only a mother could feel.
Madison gave her address, her phone number, and even her email address.
It had taken twenty-five years, but her secret was about to be revealed. With a sigh, she stared out at the baseball field and let the memories of that day overwhelm her. How she had clung desperately to her child until her mother ripped the infant from her arms and gave her to the nurse.
She’d never seen the baby again after that day. Tears filled her eyes and trickled down her face. How many times had she thought of finding her and telling her how much she wanted to keep her? In the end, she thought it better not to disrupt her life and had done her best to move on. Now that child was grown up and wondering why she had not been wanted.
But the opposite was true.
Oh, God, how she’d wanted to keep her. To love her and raise her as her own.
That time in her life had been the worst, and she’d never forgiven her mother for forcing her to give up her child for all the right reasons. They were not what Jennifer wanted to hear.
Sometimes doing the right thing was not the easiest. And having that child taken from her arms was gut-wrenching.
Her handsome son walked across the school yard, his head down. Quickly she wiped the tears from her eyes and shoved the letter into her purse.
How was her family going to react to this news?
Her husband Ryan didn’t know about her unwed pregnancy and subsequent birth. Her two smart, intelligent, beautiful children had no idea they had a half-sister. This secret had remained hidden for twenty-five years, but no more.
The door opened and her son slid in.
“Hi, Mom,” he said and she could see he was upset.
“Bad day?” she asked.
“Kind of,” he replied as he looked out the window of the car.
Something had been eating at him and she didn’t know what. He refused to talk to her about it, and only said,I’m okay. But he wasn’t. His grades had gone from honor roll to barely passing and she feared he was going to lose his scholarship to his favorite school.
No matter how she tried to approach him, the walls came slamming down. And today’s mail wouldn’t make the situation any easier. Yet, she had waited so long for this letter. So long to hear from the baby she loved instantly.
He looked at her and studied her for a moment. “Are you all right?”
“Sure,” she said, wondering how he could tell something was up. “Got something in my eye a moment ago.”
“Oh,” he said and gazed back out the window as she pulled out of the school parking lot.
“Is Dad going to be home tonight?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “This morning he left early because it’s his surgery day.”
Alex made a noise she couldn’t quite interpret.
Her husband was a leading plastic surgeon in the Hollywood community and had worked on many stars in his practice. The money he brought in had made it easy for her to stay home and raise their two children.
But the hours he worked were sometimes long, and he often came home exhausted. Lately, he seemed to work longer and longer, though he’d promised her he was going to cut back his hours.
In the twenty years they’d been married, she often wondered if she’d traded love for money. Their marriage was good, but they spent so little time together, with him working so many hours. Sometimes it felt like they were two individual people living in the same house.
And there were days she felt lonely. If not for the kids, she would spend her evenings alone. And even they were growing up and moving on with their lives. Taylor would soon finish her second year of college, and next fall, Alex would be going to a university.
“How’s the team doing?”
