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It was nice to hear that. For years she’d thought her parents weren’t reasonable, but she supposed they were better than most parents might be inthissituation.
She should keep that in mind when they told her time and again she should compromise. Maybe they felt they did in her life and it worked out.
Something to think about another time.
“You said for years you tried to keep up with Emily. What do you know?”
“She had you,” her father said. “Then she graduated from high school a year later. She said she didn’t know what she wanted to do with her life but knew she couldn’t raise you. I will admit I wasn’t sure if she’d go to college or anything, but she did. Last we knew she was a nurse.”
“Wow,” Chloe said. “If she’d kept me then she probably wouldn’t have been able to do that.”
“I’m sure. She did seem as if she was from a good family. We met her parents. As we said, they were pushing this and Emily didn’t seem to be arguing over it,” her mother said. “We wanted to know her opinion. The last thing we wanted was to get ready for you, bring you home and then find out she wanted you back.”
“That can happen?” Chloe asked.
“There is a window of time in which they can change their minds, yes,” her father said.
“Do you know if she ever married or anything? Just because this letter is the same last name doesn’t mean anything.”
“We don’t know that,” her mother said. “It’s been years. Do you want to know more about her before you reach out? We can help you with that.”
She wasn’t going to say Royce suggested that to her. No reason to let her parents know that she’d told a friend, least of all a guy. They’d want to know what Royce was to her and right now she wasn’t so sure of the answer herself.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said. “I’ve been thinking about it for days. I talked to Dane. He brought up a good point.”
“Melanie wanted him to find his birth parents. Your brother wasn’t interested,” her mother said.
“You know about that?” she asked.
“Melanie told me. Dane never did. I think it caused more than one rift, but it didn’t stop her from having kids either. She was a bit of a control freak,” her mother said.
She just smiled. No reason to say more. This wasn’t about Dane’s life. “He had to live with her,” she said. “But what he said to me was this letter opened up a lot of questions. If I shut it now I don’t know that much and can move on. Maybe. But the more I find out, the harder it is to walk away. I have to figure out what I want from this.”
“That is right,” her father said. “This is about you, not Emily.”
She was happy to get support from her parents on this issue. “I’ll think some more and go from there. I have to ask myself if I want her in my life. I don’t know if I’m the type of person that can find out things and then just move on.”
“You’ve never had any problem walking away from people in your life before,” her mother pointed out.
“This is different and you know it. What if I’ve got siblings? Or other nieces and nephews?”
“You could have all those things,” her father said. “I wish we knew why Emily was reaching out after all this time, but the only way to find out is to contact her.”
“I know. I’m in no rush for that decision. I guess I just thought you might know more.”
“We’ve told you all we know,” her mother said. “If you want us to find out more, we will.”
“No,” she said. “I have to do this on my own. So please, don’t do anything.”
She could tell her parents were torn and wanted to, but she hoped they’d honor her request.
23
Slid Into Dating
Almost three weeks later, Royce opened the door for Chloe on Valentine’s Day. He’d gotten out of work an hour earlier than normal. He really needed to be at work. There was so much going on and not enough hands to get it done, but he was trying to not be that person again.
Too many years of doing it and he was still single.
