Page 22 of Waiting for Friday Night

Sighing, Halle took a sip of tea, hoping the chamomile worked and soothed her nerves, but her fluttering pulse and sweaty palms proved she wasn’t getting any relaxation.

“You know I lost your grandma when I was around your age.” Shania nodded. “After your grandpa died, I was alone.” She remembered those days. The crushing pain of knowing she’d never hear their voices again. That she was the only one left. She took a shaky breath before continuing.

“I’d just finished undergrad and was working part-time at a private school. The principal there understood how I felt. Her parents passed away three years before and she was alone. She’d given birth to a son the year before. She didn’t say much about the father and no one asked, but she told me about a company she used. One that matched people who wanted kids with private donors. I had the money from my parents’ estate and I had the will so I did it.”

At the time the idea of having a kid had seemed like the perfect answer. A way to keep her parents legacy going. A chance to have someone she could love unconditionally. A chance to rebuild her family.

Shania glanced around the room. Her shoulders rising and falling in a manner that was controlled enough to tell Halle she was trying to remain calm. “Who else knows?”

Halle shook her head. “No one. I kept what I did to myself.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I didn’t want anyone to treat you differently.”

“Who would treat me differently?”

Halle sat back in her chair. She tightly held on to the cup of tea in her hand. The warmth of the liquid had gone away. “This is a small town. People here would speculate or have something sly to say. Our family wouldn’t understand. They’d think I’d been rash in my decision.”

“So you’d rather they think my dad was some deadbeat who didn’t want anything to do with you or me?”

“Honestly, yes. I’d rather they think that.” Her aunts and uncles wouldn’t have understood. They were great, but they weren’t open-minded. A distant cousin had adopted a child when she was younger, and she remembered her dad’s sister asking why they would do that not knowing if the kid would grow up to have any problems from their parents. She’d spoken the words with a casual callousness that let Halle know she would accept the child in the family, but that she would also never see the child as a real part of the family. Halle hadn’t wanted that for Shania.

“Were you ashamed?” Shania asked quietly. “Did you regret what you did?”

Halle sat forward and spoke confidently. “I never regretted what I did. Having you was a blessing.”

“A blessing you were ashamed to let people know about.”

“That’s not true.”

“What about me? Why couldn’t you even tell me?”

“I know how much you want a father. I didn’t know a good way of saying you’ll never meet him.”

“But I did meet him. I found him through a simple DNA test. I could’ve found him years ago. What if he had other kids? What if his sperm was given to a lot of women? I could’ve gone off to college and married my brother or something.” Shania shivered and gave Halle a look of horror.

Halle held up a hand. “No, that wouldn’t happen. The point of this private donation meant no one else received the same donation.”

“But what if he donated somewhere else?”

The simple question was one Halle hadn’t allowed herself to consider before. She’d gone the private route because she hadn’t wanted her kid to end up with forty other siblings spread across the US. She’d assumed the person on the other end felt the same way and hadn’t given multiple donations, but there was no way to prove that.

And why had Quinton donated in the first place? It wasn’t as if he was the type of guy who would have trouble starting a family. He’d mentioned needing money. Had he struggled that much to go that far? If so, why wouldn’t he have considered making an additional donation?

“We’ll ask him,” Halle said. “After we verify these results. They may be wrong.”

Shania’s look said that she thought Halle was being delusional, but to her credit she didn’t say it out loud. “But if they’re right, it means he’s my dad. That changes so much.”

“It changes nothing,” she said automatically. She didn’t want this to change anything even though she knew this information was a grenade that would blow up her entire life.

“Yes, it does. He’s my dad. We can’t ignore it.”

Shania’s dad. Would he make demands now? Would he expect her to listen to him when it came to decisions about Shania? Would he fight with her for joint custody? Quinton seemed reasonable, but that was before he found out he had a kid. Halle didn’t know what he would want or expect from this. She only had one thing to cling to.

“Don’t forget he made an anonymous donation,” she reminded them both. “He may not have wanted you to find him. We can’t assume he’ll want to be a part of your life.”

The flash of hurt on Shania’s face made Halle wish she could take the words back, but she couldn’t. It was true. That thought quelled the anxiety rising in her chest. Quinton may not want to be involved. And Halle wasn’t sure if she wanted him involved. Her life plans didn’t include him. She was dating Gregory; they were finally making headway. Now this? How would he react to the news? How would her family and the rest of the people in town? The thought of the gossip made her stomach clench.

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