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“What do you mean?” Sophie asked.
“I mean, maybe I’m digging into something that’s better left buried. It’s been almost thirty years since the switch happened. I’m looking for answers, but what...what if all I find is heartache? It’s going to destroy families.”
“Or unite them,” Sophie countered. “Your parents know that you love them, and they love you no matter what they find. That isn’t a risk. But I’m willing to bet a part of them would want to know what happened to their biological daughter, too. They have to wonder if she’s safe and happy. They wouldn’t trade you for the world, but this will bring them peace of mind, if nothing else. You’re going to gain family, not lose them.”
“You can’t be so sure. Maybe my parents will realize their real daughter is so much better than I am, and they’ll choose her over me.”
“That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Anyone would be happy to have you for their daughter. I have no idea who you were swapped with, but your parents did not get the short end of the stick with you, Jade.”
“I know,” she admitted reluctantly. That was her insecurity speaking. Her parents would be shocked to hear her even suggest such a thing. “I just don’t like not knowing how any of this will turn out.”
Sophie crossed her arms over her chest in exasperation. “Well, you’ll never know until you try. And even if you stopped the investigation now, it’s too late. The genie is out of the bottle and there’s no way you’d be able to pretend you don’t know the truth any longer. You might as well follow the trail to see where it leads, or you’re always going to wonder and harbor regrets.”
Jade frowned at her friend. That’s all she could do, because she knew Sophie was right. The minute she got that DNA test in the mail there was no turning back.
“Your biological parents are out there, somewhere. You’ve always wanted to have that connection to someone that you felt you lacked. You’ll have more family now. More people to depend on. More people to love you.”
“You make it sound like this is all going to end like a Disney movie. I’m not about to find out I’m a secret princess. Birds aren’t going to make my clothes and a prince isn’t going to sweep me off my feet. My real parents could be horrible people. And even if they aren’t, this is going to end in lawsuits and tears, and maybe even someone going to jail, if we were switched on purpose.”
“Maybe. But I’m an optimist. And I think this is going to be good for you. You need some good in your life after everything that happened with Lance.”
Jade groaned and pushed herself up from the table. “I don’t want to talk about all that tonight.”
“We’re not. And I didn’t mean to bring it up. I’m just saying that I think you deserve some happiness. I think there are good things on the horizon for you. Even if your real family doesn’t turn out to be everything you’ve hoped for, there can still be positives. Maybe you’ll get a huge settlement from the hospital and you can buy a nice house. That would be something good.”
Jade picked up the half-empty bottle of wine from the counter and carried it back to the table. She refilled both their glasses. “It would certainly help,” she admitted. “Lance’s addiction ate through all our savings. I’m making decent money now, but things like a house are just pipe dreams with the cost of living in Charleston.”
She set the bottle on the table and sat down in the chair. “Things weren’t supposed to end up like this, you know? Everyone said that Lance was the smart choice for me. He was older, established, educated... Marrying him was going to provide me with the stable, safe and loving home I wanted for myself and my future family. We wouldn’t struggle with money the way my parents did. Everything was supposed to end up perfectly.”
“No one could’ve expected what happened to Lance, honey,” Sophie said. “They call it the opioid epidemic for a reason. A lot of people get caught up in it without meaning to. He was never the same after that car accident.”
“No, he wasn’t.”
It had been the beginning of the end for their marriage, although Jade didn’t know it then. She was too busy fighting her way through her last year of pharmacy school to see the warning signs. He’d needed the pain pills after his back surgery, but the more he took, the harder it was for him to manage things at work. The more stress he was under, the more pills he needed. As he started to fail, Jade had graduated and thrived in her new career as a pharmacist. Lance couldn’t cope with the idea of her being more successful than he was, and it just fed into his existing drug problem.
The next thing she knew, the cops were at her door at 2:00 a.m. and she was being questioned about a break-in at the pharmacy where she worked. Apparently, Lance had taken her keys to steal pain pills. His doctors had recognized he had an issue, and refused to give him more pain medication, so he’d resorted to more desperate means to get it. Jade had filed for divorce before Lance could even get a public defender assigned to him. It was one thing to battle addiction, but to put her career at risk in the process seemed like a deliberate move on his part that she couldn’t overlook. He couldn’t stand her success and she was tired of propping up his ego.
“The irony of it all is that I broke things off with Harley because he was supposedly the bad boy who wouldn’t amount to anything. Lance was the good guy with a future. Harley was trouble with an angel’s smile that would lead me down the wrong path in life. I can’t help but wonder sometimes,” Jade said, as she fingered the rim of her wineglass, “what would have happened if I’d made a different choice. Did things work out the way they were meant to? Or did I go against my gut and make the worst mistake of my life by walking away from him all those years ago?”
And if it had been a mistake, Jade couldn’t help but wonder if Harley showing up on her porch was a second chance to make things right. Did she dare take the risk?
Three
Harley felt like a stupid, insecure teenager again.
That didn’t happen very often, and frankly, it was silly that he felt that way now. He was a grown man. A successful CEO of his own company. There was no reason for him to feel anything but completely
confident in his skin. But walking up the driveway to the Nolans’ house made him just as anxious as it had when he’d picked Jade up for dates all those years ago.
Perhaps because it was the same little house—a brick-and-vinyl rancher with a carport and neglected flower beds. It was an older home in a poorer area of town, but he knew this part of Charleston well. The apartment he’d shared with his mother was only a few blocks away, or it had been, before it was demolished and replaced with a shopping center.
The whole neighborhood seemed quieter now, as though all the children he remembered running the streets were grown and gone. Things seemed to be more in disrepair as owners aged and were unable to maintain their properties or were forced to move out and rent to people who didn’t care as much for their begonias as they did.
At one time, Harley had felt like he fitted in around here. Now, with his shiny black Jaguar in the driveway instead of a beat-up old truck, and a designer suit replacing his torn jeans, it was obvious that the neighborhood wasn’t the only thing that had changed.
As he faced the front door, where Arthur Nolan had greeted him dozens of times with a sour expression, he was glad he’d asked Jade to meet him here today. He’d already interviewed her, but having her there while he questioned her parents would make things easier.
Or so he thought.
