“Her parents always said she definitely seemed subdued, but they took it for tiredness at the time,” Joseph replied. “She’d just returned from an extremely long trip, after all. She holed herself up in her room and they assumed she was getting some much-needed rest.” Joseph paused, glancing at David. “Listen, I’m pretty sure I know what you’re thinking, but the thing is this . . . if something like that did happen to her, once she was back in the safety of her parents’ home, why wouldn’t she have said anything? Why wouldn’t she have gone to the police? All the help and support she needed was at her fingertips. Her abandoning everything was just so strange and unlike her that I feel there’s got to be a deeper layer to this story. But we’ll never know unless we find her. Which is one reason I joined the site.”
“Oh,” David breathed. “You really think there’s a chance?” A flicker of hope danced across his mind at the thought, but it was quickly swatted as he remembered the obvious: she would have come up as a match for him if she’d signed up to the site, which meant Joseph couldn’t have had any luck either.
Joseph shrugged. “I thought it was a possibility, however slim. It didn’t take a lot of effort to add my profile to all the major services, and it’s not like I was swimming with options. So far, no luck with your mother, but it brought me to you.” He smiled.
David let out a slow breath. “So, what family do I have? Our grandparents have passed already, and with my mom missing and my father unknown, that makes you and your parents . . .?”
“We are a pretty small family, but you have another cousin, too.” Joseph grinned. “I have a younger sister, Cerise.”
David smiled back, feeling warmth bud in his chest. That was good news. The revelation of his mother’s troubling past might be weighing down on him, but he couldn’t ignore the family he did have. A family that, less than an hour ago, he hadn’t even been sure existed.
“Do you all live in New York?” David asked.
Joseph nodded, and David noticed a slight glisten in his cousin’s eyes. “You have no idea how much it would mean to us to meet you. My mom especially.”
Something tickled at the back of David’s throat, and he felt his own eyes start to blur. “It would mean the world to me, too.” He had an aunt!
“Where are you now?” Joseph asked.
“I’m in Boston.”
“Boston, eh?” Joseph gave a watery grin. “We always did wonder which direction Jeanine headed in. But what’s up with the British accent?”
“I was raised in England. I’m here now attending college and trying to pick up my parents’ trail.”
“I got it . . . When could we meet?”
“This weekend? I could come down to see you.” David knew he probably ought to check his calendar first, but who gave a damn? He could barely even think of his studies at this point.
“Absolutely,” Joseph said. “The sooner the better. How about you come on Saturday? I live in a three-bed, so there’s plenty of space. Feel free to bring your partner if you have one. You can stay the whole weekend, and I can . . . take you to see my mom.”
David didn’t miss Joseph’s falter, and he frowned. “Your parents live nearby, I take it?”
“Yeah. I, uh.” Joseph’s hand crept up the back of his head and he seemed to fidget with his hair. Then he exhaled sharply and looked back at the screen. “Honestly, I wasn’t sure about telling you this now, David, after everything I’ve already dumped on you this evening, but I figure it’s just best you know. My mom . . . She’s in the hospital. She’s not doing too well. I’m by her side as often as I can be when I’m off work, and she’s been talking about your mother more and more. She’s the main reason I signed up to those websites a few months ago. We’re all trying to stay optimistic about a recovery, but . . .” He quickly swiped at his eyes with one hand. “Let’s just say she really would give anything to see her little sister again, at this point in her life, particularly. That’s why you surfacing now will be such an incredible surprise for her. Especially since her birthday is coming up soon.”
Joseph finished with a smile, but his words had made David’s insides go cold.
“What does she have?” he asked hoarsely.
Joseph grimaced. “Cancer. Ovarian.”
“Stage . . .?”
“Three.”
David’s mouth clamped shut. All he could feel was intense gratitude that Professor Bell had suggested the DNA testing when he had, and that he’d leapt on the suggestion immediately. Cancer was an unpredictable beast that came with no guarantees. Like life in general, in fact.
“I’m sorry, Joseph,” he said.
“It’s okay,” Joseph replied, his voice strengthening. “I’m just so happy you got in touch. I’ll text you my address, okay? Come down on Saturday, and we can figure out a time to go see my mom.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
“All right. I’d better sign off now. But I’ll send you some photos.”
“Thank you!” David practically gasped.
Joseph waved at the camera. “Talk soon, cuz.”
The connection cut, and David stayed staring at the screen. A moment later, Joseph’s address came through, followed swiftly by a bunch of attachments.
David climbed up to his bunk and swiped to the first one. It was the photo of a young brunette woman in a light yellow summer dress, posing in front of a red Mini. He zoomed in on her face and almost stopped breathing. Beneath her dark, lightly manicured eyebrows, her eyes shone in a startling shade of blue, almost identical to his. Something about the shape of her nose and chin also reminded him of himself. There was a general sharpness to her features that made him guess his Northern European blood stemmed from her. And her smile was contagious . . . Jeanine.
He stared at her for a long time, imagining his smile mirroring hers. Then he turned to the next photo—a shot of her crouched down cleaning a muddy stable. Her face was stained brown, but her radiant smile was there again, shining out. Then there was another of her standing on a sidewalk outside a café, holding the hand of what looked like a very young, very adorable, curly-haired Joseph. All appeared to have been taken around the same time.
The next photo was of an elderly, seventy-something-year-old couple affectionately leaning into each other on a sofa. Hi, Gran and Gramps. Wish I could’ve known you. The woman had round, soft features that David thought would’ve made her face look friendly and approachable even if she weren’t smiling, and the first thing he noticed about the man was his blue eyes. They were his mother’s, too. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, and there was some sort of faded tattoo on his wrist. And was that the Star of David he had pinned to his sweater? David smiled. Maybe Mrs. Rosen had been right after all.
Then there was a picture of a younger couple, in their fifties, which seemed to have been taken recently, judging by the iPhone models strapped to their belts. They were standing on a slope holding hiking rods, and their beaming faces were shiny with sweat. Given that the second photo was of them standing on a beach holding scuba-diving gear, they seemed to be an active couple. It made him hurt to think that this woman was bedridden now.
She reminded David of his mother, with the sharp nose and startlingly blue eyes, but her features had gotten rounder and softer with age and her brunette hair was silvered with grays . . . Maybe this was what his mother looked like now.
And what about the middle-aged man at her side? It looked like his graying, receding hair might have once been dark, and maybe his slightly bulging waist had once been more cinched in. David assumed that this man was his uncle by marriage, Joseph and Cerise’s father, but he had been so caught up in learning more about his mother that he hadn’t thought to ask about the rest of his family.
The rest of his family. It still hadn’t quite hit home. Just moments ago, David had had no one. Now he had two cousins, grandparents, an aunt and uncle, and . . . a mother.
Jeanine. He went back to her photo on his phone and stared longingly at it. Seei
ng her in her dress, young and happy, David was struck by how distant and yet familiar she seemed, like a stranger he had known his whole life.
But then his brow furrowed as his mind turned back to wondering what had happened to make her run away like she had, while David was just starting to form in her womb. What was she running from? Or running to? What could have driven her away from the loving and supportive family that Joseph insisted they were? Jeanine hadn’t just left to give birth to David. She had left and never come back, going so far as to ask her family not to look for her.
Why?
David’s phone emitted a sudden buzz, breaking his chain of thought, and a message from Zeke popped up and covered his mother’s picture.
“Well? Any luck?”
David sighed and tapped Zeke’s message, letting his fingers hover over the touchscreen while he thought about how to respond. He had told Zeke that he’d let him know as soon as he was done, but David still had so much to consider. So much to digest. He didn’t feel capable of hashing it all out with his friend yet, not when it was still a jumble in his own mind.
“Some luck, I think,” David replied, deciding to hedge the truth a bit. “I’m going to New York this weekend to learn more. By the way, you can come back now.”
Though, David didn’t plan to be in the room when Zeke got back. Swinging his legs off the bed, he climbed off his bunk and headed for the door. A walk was what he needed. He wasn’t sure where to, but he had to get out of his room for a while. It was simply too small a space to hold all of his thoughts and emotions at the moment.
David’s phone buzzed again as he climbed down the stairs to the ground floor.
“NYC? Hell yes! Maybe we can catch a Broadway show, if tix aren’t too expensive.”
David blinked, taking a moment to process the statement. So Zeke was inviting himself? He wasn’t sure how to feel about that, honestly. It was a pretty personal trip. He and his family would have literally two decades to catch up on, and he definitely wouldn’t have the time or inclination for anything like theater.
Then again . . . maybe he could do with the support. A familiar face. Who knew what it would be like for him, mentally and emotionally, meeting his biological family for the first time? What if things were awkward, or if Joseph wasn’t what he seemed during their video chat? Having someone familiar there could help immensely.
Joseph had also welcomed an extra person, when he’d extended his invitation to include David’s “partner.” Perhaps he’d thought it was a good idea, too.
David was about to type back, asking if Zeke was sure he was free, when another message popped up.
“I can just reschedule my counseling appt this weekend.”
Crap. David had almost forgotten about Zeke’s weekend counseling session. There was no way he could miss that, not for any reason. He had literally been standing on the ledge before he finally agreed to go. And the counseling sessions really seemed to be helping him so far. Zeke was standing taller and making jokes. David had even caught him listening to music while studying once, which was a far cry from the way he had done it before: slouched and morose, like he was already preparing for failure.
“You shouldn’t miss a session, Zeke. I’ll be fine on my own. Just gone a day or two.”
David sighed. He’d just have to do this alone.
“Come on, man. I’m fine,” Zeke replied. “I want to be there for you.”
David sighed and ignored him, sliding his phone back into his pocket as he reached the ground floor. They’d had a similar conversation before about how important Zeke’s appointments were. He wasn’t in the mood to repeat himself, and Zeke should understand David’s thoughts on the matter from his silence.
David had way too many other things on his mind to play nanny to his roommate right now.
He walked quickly and kept his eyes down as he made his way through the public areas of his house, managed to make it through unbothered, and stepped out onto the sidewalk.
He shoved his hands into his pockets and set out, quickly putting distance between himself and the Wolf Club. As he walked, he replayed the conversation with his cousin in his head. Joseph had been hoping to hear from Jeanine, not her child. In fact, he hadn’t even known that she was pregnant when his family saw her last. David wondered how his aunt would react to the news that she had an unknown nephew. Would she definitely be happy, as Joseph had believed? Confused? He sure hoped it would be the former.
And what about his father? The DNA test said that David was part Brazilian, which lined up with his mother’s trip to South America before she got pregnant. But what was his father’s role in all of this? Had Jeanine been leaving her family to go back to him?
Or—David wondered, his skin prickling with anxiety—to keep him from finding her?
David came to a sudden halt as he realized he’d just stepped onto Katy’s street. What was he doing here?
She had been on his mind rather a lot recently, but he couldn’t believe he had gotten so far before he realized where he was walking to. Subconscious or not—what if he had wound up right outside of her house and Katy had seen him wandering there, like some kind of creep? And right after he’d just assured her he was totally cool with being friends . . .
David took a deep breath to collect himself. Get it together, man. If you’re getting this wound up about stuff already, what do you think this weekend is going to be like?
He looked around and considered where to head next. The campus bookstore wasn’t too far away. His aunt’s birthday was coming up, and he wanted to bring a gift, even if he didn’t know anything about the woman yet . . . other than her unfortunate sickness and her longing for Jeanine.
They had that last part in common.
Maybe he could find a sentimental gift in the bookstore, something that would show his aunt how much he cared and how excited he was to meet her. At the very least, it would help him prepare for his trip, rather than fret over it.
As he stood awash in his thoughts, a voice suddenly interrupted.
“David?”
David froze, then turned on the sidewalk to see Katy standing there, her green eyes hinting at the confusion she must’ve felt. In spite of the sudden heat in his cheeks, he couldn’t help but notice how lovely she looked in the soft sunlight of the evening. She was dressed casually in jeans and a long-sleeve shirt pushed up to her elbows, but the gentle elegance of her features and posture gave her an ever-polished look, like she was permanently walking through a high-fashion photoshoot.
“H-Hey,” he managed, slightly embarrassed.
“What are you doing here?” Katy asked. She still looked a little perplexed by his presence, but a spark in her eyes and a slight upturn in the corners of her mouth gave him the impression that maybe it wasn’t an unwelcome surprise. At least, he hoped as much.
“Just taking a walk,” he replied. Right around the corner from your house. Smooth, mate. Smooth. Still, now that she was here, David’s cluttered thoughts seemed to have taken a back seat. He hadn’t wanted to deal with Zeke’s level of energy just yet, but Katy had a calmer, more comforting presence that he definitely didn’t mind.
Katy smiled gently. “Ah, cool,” she said. “Well, I was just off to do some shopping . . .”
She looked away in the direction of the bookstore, and David sensed an opening.
“Oh, I was actually about to head to the bookstore,” he said. “If you’re headed in that direction, we could walk together.”
Katy didn’t immediately look at him or answer. Instead, she exhaled softly, as if she was considering far more than just his invitation.
“I am going that way,” she said flatly.
David cleared his throat. He was getting the impression that he actually wasn’t welcome to join her, which was unfortunate, since her presence was a welcome reprieve from his jumbled thoughts. But he didn’t want to intrude if she wasn’t interested.
“If you’re busy or would rather be alone—” David began
.
Katy turned to look at him and shook her head. “No, I’d be happy to walk with you,” she said. “I’m sorry. Just have a lot on my mind.”
“I know the feeling,” David replied.
Katy slowly walked past him in the direction of the shops. He caught up to her and then slowed his pace to match hers so that they could walk side by side.
“Everything all right?” David asked. Katy’s behavior was unusual, and she didn’t seem very present in their conversation.
“Just school stuff, I guess,” she replied, looking straight ahead.
David didn’t buy it, but he didn’t push her to reveal any more. She obviously didn’t want to share. Besides, he had enough to worry about.
“What are you getting from the shop?” Katy asked.
David breathed in deeply. How much did he want to share? He didn’t want to overwhelm her. Then again, she already knew the main parts.
“A gift,” he started, trying to sound casual. “For my aunt.”
Katy stopped in her tracks.
“Wait,” she said, looking at David intently. “You have an aunt? But I thought—”
“I found a cousin,” he interjected. “Through one of the ancestry websites.”
“David!” she exclaimed. “That’s . . . That’s wonderful!”
David stopped to face Katy, but before he could speak or even think, Katy had leapt to embrace him. The force of her excitement on his behalf almost knocked him off his feet, which was no small feat given how much smaller she was in comparison. But then, once Katy had her arms around him, all other thoughts seemed to melt away. David focused on the warmth of her slender figure as it pressed against his chest. Her arms had encircled his rib cage, just above his waist. And David brought his arms around her in turn, resting on her narrow shoulders and pulling her in even more tightly. He lowered his head down to be beside hers and closed his eyes. He could smell the clean, floral scent of her shampoo. He could feel the flutter of her quick heartbeat through the thin fabric of their shirts. And her breath was warm and comforting in the crook of his neck. He could’ve stayed like that for days.
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