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“Pizza?” She furrows her brow, and the brutal reality slaps me in the face. These girls have never experienced the simple pleasantries of life. God, they’ve been through hell, but they’re never going to have to endure it ever again.
“Yeah, it’s so delicious and yummy. I think maybe some brownies or cookies are something we should add to the list, too,” Emily says and then looks at me.
I nod without hesitation because these girls have been through enough already. One thing’s for certain, their lives are never going to be the same. They’re going to be so much better.
Chapter Twenty-One
Emily
When we got back to the hotel suite the other night, I felt horrible, worse than I ever thought I was going to feel. I knew these girls had probably been through hell, but they had never had a cookie or even a brownie before. They’ve never had pizza or tasted Pepsi. It broke my heart, shredding it into a million little pieces.
We spent a few hours with the girls and ate with them, played with them, and even went out to get them some new clothes. They were in old, worn-out clothing they’d probably been in for weeks, and I doubt the clothes were even washed before they were given to them.
Lom and I discussed so much the day we met the girls, especially the guilt and shame I was feeling. For the most part, I kept my feelings buried deep down, but as time went on, I could feel myself cracking under the pressure of it all. I was proud that I didn’t crack until after we got back here. The last thing I wanted was to break down crying in front of all of those poor girls.
I’ve been visiting them every single day since they arrived in Atlanta because it’s not like I have a job to go to anymore. Spending time with them has been amazing, and I’ve learned so much about each of their personalities. I’ve gotten to know all their names.
Naomi, Sierra one, Madalyn, Sierra two, Nicolette, Emilia, Olive, Dara, Penelope, Lilly, Alannah, Rachelle, Kayleigh, and Sarah. I’m not sure if they all kept the same names they were given at birth, but I’m really hoping they did. It’s still a needle in a haystack when it comes to finding their birth parents, but it’s at least it’s some kind of starting-off point. Otherwise, we’d be going into everything blindly, and it would only make all this that much harder.
My phone rings on the coffee table, and I snatch it up. We were told we’d get the results within twenty-four hours, but the lab’s been backed up with other paternity cases, so we were told it might take forty-eight to seventy-two hours longer. The phone number calling me is from an Atlanta area code, so I answer without hesitation. “Hello.”
“Hello, is this Emily Matherson?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Hi, this is Yvonne from Star Labs. I was calling to give you your results over the phone since it was specified to call you as soon as possible. Do you have the case numbers for the tests we conducted for you?”
“Yes, ma’am, I do,” I tell her as I pull out my case number, as well as the test numbers for both of the girls.
“Whenever you’re ready, please let me know.”
“I’m ready for the answer right now,” I tell her, and she clears her throat on the other end.
“When it comes to test number M8921612241652K, we’ve confirmed that the child has a 0% probability of being a match to the parent. When it comes to test number M8921612241653K, we’ve confirmed that the child has a 99.9% chance of being a match to the parent.”
“Thank you so much.” I glance down and look for the last three of the test number ‘653K’, and it matches the Sierra who has dark brown hair, the one I saw, which means that the Sierra Lom was speaking with isn’t a match at all.
“Certainly. Have a great day,” Yvonne tells me before hanging up the phone.
It feels so good to finally have an answer, to finally know that my daughter is going to be safe with me for the rest of her life. It also feels good to know we got all those girls out of that horrible situation. I only wish we could’ve saved more of them.
“Well, what did they say?” Lom’s anxiously asking me. I know he wanted this answer as much as I did.
“The girl I helped from the truck is my daughter, and the one you helped isn’t.”
“I’m glad you have an answer now. But I’m saddened at the same time. We got that one girl’s hopes up, and now we’re going to have to tell her she isn’t coming home with us.” Lom shakes his head slightly, and I feel as though he’s grown attached to her.
“What will happen to her?” I question, and Lom clears his throat before answering me.
“We’re going to see if we can find her birth parents, but if we can’t, then we’ll find another option. We’re only going to reunite them as long as we know they had no hand in where your aunt was sending them. We know she was preying on innocent girls, but we don’t know if any of those mothers knew. We’d be foolish to think there wasn’t at least one or two who didn’t have some sort of idea or gut instinct about your aunt Lucy.”
I agree one hundred percent with what Lom’s saying. I’ve come to realize that not everything is as it seems, and people disappoint you. My aunt is living proof of that, as well as my parents. I want to make sure these girls end up getting to a safe place, and until that happens, I know Lom will help me provide for them financially. I love how pure of a heart this man has, even if he’s mixed up in dangerous things because of his family name.
It’s so complicated because we’re supposed to leave for Grozny later today. But at least we have the answer we need before we leave. Lom’s even already had someone prepare a fake passport for Sierra, and we took photos of both of the girls the other day after we cleaned them up a bit.
“Thank you for helping me find her, Lom… I don’t know how I ever would’ve done this without you. Actually, I don’t think I would’ve found her if it wasn’t for you.” Tears threaten to fall from my eyes as I speak from the heart, and Lom closes the distance between us. He wraps his arms around my body and kisses my forehead. The moment his lips collide with my skin, a feeling of ease washes over me. This man is my home, and I know it. I’d always heard how people in love would call someone else their home, but I never understood the sentiment until now.
“I wasn’t going to stop until we found your daughter, upryamaya mysh.” With every word he speaks, I know it’s coming directly from the heart. Lom is a great man, and he’s the type of man I know I’ll spend the rest of my life with.
