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Before I could scramble together a rational, reasonable response, Hallie spun around. She strode quickly up the stairs. She was back down in a flash, zipping her backpack. “I was leaving in a few hours, but I think I'll leave now. You're still welcome to come to any doctor's appointments. We'll figure this out. But in the meantime, we'll be friends. Nothing more.”
“Hallie,” I began.
She held a palm up. “No. I need you to respect me on this. This is important to me.”
And then, she was gone.
I banged around the house, my stomach constantly feeling as if I were falling from a great height. My heart clanged in a confused, angry beat, uncertain whether I was angry with myself or Hallie.
A few hours later, she sent me a text.Here's Jonathan's phone number. Feel free to call him. Here's his husband's phone number. Feel free to call him too. You can ask all the questions you want.
I felt sick. I had to find a way back out of the mess I’d made. I took a deep breath, startled when the phone rang only minutes later. I snatched it off the coffee table quickly, hoping it was Hallie. Coward that I was, I hadn't had the nerve to call her yet. It was Rhys. I needed a distraction, so I answered.
“Hello.”
“Hey there. How’s it going?”
“Okay. You?” I replied, my tone clipped.
“Good. Look, I know that conversation about our dad and your mom was a little weird, but I wanted to follow up.” I'd already learned Rhys did not waste time.
Today wasthatkind of day, so I took a breath, letting it out before replying, “All right. What's up?”
“She did get pregnant before she had you, but she had an abortion,” Rhys said matter-of-factly.
“Oh, uh, okay.”
“I figure this whole thing is pretty uncomfortable, so I didn’t want to let it hang out there unknown. I had the investigator who helped us locate you look into that.”
“I appreciate that,” I finally said.
We sat in silence for a minute.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, I'm fine. We don't need to dwell on this awkward topic.”
“Fair enough. How's Hallie?”
My heartbeat felt empty and echoey in my chest. “She's fine.”
“Good. We'd love to have you both for a visit again, although I'm guessing travel for her isn't the best plan. McKenna wants to visit Willow Brook. Is that all right with you?”
“Of course.”
“Your sister invited her to stay with her,” Rhys added.
I chuckled. “That’s Tiffany. She's welcome to stay with me as well, although I don't have a ton of space. My main house is under construction.”
Tiffany had recently made the decision to move back to Willow Brook and rented an apartment downtown even though she wasn’t fully back yet. “I'll let McKenna know. She’ll stay in touch with you about when she's coming.”
“Awesome. Thanks.”
“I should be able to come up next month,” he added.
“That'd be great.”
We chatted about the weather and timing before ending the call. Afterward, I stared at my phone.
“Wow,” I muttered to myself. What could have been a tangled complication wasn't.
I slid my thumb across the screen and pulled up Hallie's phone number, calling her while my heart cast out beats of hope. She didn't answer.
