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“Not much. I need to talk to my mom. In fact, I’m going to talk to my mom. Now.”
“You’re going to leave the bakery?”
“I am. I love this place, but it can function without me.”
“The lunch rush is coming.”
He’s right. “I’ll leave after the lunch rush. Luke and Maya can handle things after that. The day’s bake is done, and if we run out of bread, they can close early.”
“Ava, this isn’t like you.”
“No, but I’m not me anymore.”
“Ave…”
“Seriously. I’m okay.” I grab Brock’s forearm. “That didn’t come out right. But I will eat. I promise. I’m not going to let myself wither away to nothing. I love my life. I love my family, despite their obvious flaws. I love Brendan.”
“We’ve all—well, Dale, Don, and me, at least—been through the same thing. I mean, none of us found out we had different ancestors than we thought, but we got a heavy dose of Steel secrets. None of it is pretty, Ave. We got through it, and so will you.”
“I know that. But I’m going to get answers from my mother, and I’m going to get them today.” I grab a clean pair of disposable gloves from the dispenser. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to work.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Brendan
“That’s a long story,” Jack says.
I take the last sip of my coffee. “We don’t have anywhere to be.”
Jack turns to Lauren. “Mom…maybe you’d better do the honors. Not that it’s any of their business, but I don’t have anything to hide.”
“You know, Jack,” Lauren says, “maybe it’s time to get all this stuff out in the open. I’m tired of covering for my mother. She’s made my life hell, but I got you out of it, and you’ve been the most amazing gift. I just—” She chokes back a sob.
“It’s okay, Mom.” He pats her knee.
“You have no idea the guilt I still feel about giving up my other son,” Lauren says. “I try not to think about it, but now that you’ve brought it up…”
“We didn’t mean to bring up painful memories,” I say. “We’re just looking for answers.”
“Believe me, I understand.” She draws in a deep breath. “Jack was conceived through a sperm donor. A sperm donor named Sean Murphy.”
Dad’s eyes widen into circles.
And I glare at him. “Dad…”
“For God’s sake, Brendan. It wasn’t me. I never donated any sperm. You’re my only child. Your mother and I tried after you, but it just never happened.”
I nod. “Sorry. Of course you’re not Jack’s father.”
“I hesitate to even tell you this,” Lauren says, “but we’re all in now, I guess. You know more about me than most do, and we just met, but somehow I feel like…” She shakes her head. “Let me just get this out. My mother made all the arrangements. I’d always wanted to be a mother, ever since I was a little girl, and I was ready to get married to the man I thought was the love of my life when he disappeared. I’m sure my mother was behind it. She never liked him, but I was young and naïve and didn’t know what she was capable of back then. Anyway, she offered to pay for artificial insemination and said she knew of the perfect donor.”
“So your mother got the sperm sample for you?” I ask.
“She did.” Lauren clears her throat. “I was just so desperate and heartbroken after Michael left me, and I wanted a child so badly… I didn’t ask a lot of questions.”
“And the sperm donor’s name was Sean Murphy.”
“Yes. That’s all I know. Mom arranged for it and said he wouldn’t be involved in the child’s life but asked that Jack take his surname.”
“Did you know that Sean Murphy was my uncle?” Dad asks.
“I didn’t know who he was.”
“And my uncle died of a drug overdose over fifty years ago.”
“Dad,” I begin, “Sean Murphy is not an uncommon name. It may not be—”
“For God’s sake, Brendan, look at him. His hair, his facial features. Look at that jawline and that nose. He’s related to us for sure.”
“A simple DNA test can prove that,” I say.
“Hold on,” Jack says. “I never knew Sean Murphy, and if he died fifty years ago, how the hell could he be my father? I’m only thirty-one.”
“Jack makes a good point, Dad,” I say.
“You’re right.” Dad sighs, takes a sip of his coffee. “I’m just so determined to figure out what happened to him.”
“Maybe it’s time to take what happened to him at face value, Dad. He passed out at Brad Steel’s wedding, and he died in the hospital of a drug overdose.”
“But he didn’t do drugs.”
“That you knew of. That anyone who knew him knew of. But drug addicts aren’t always forthcoming about their usage.”
Dad punches the arm of his chair. “My uncle was not a damned drug addict!”
