Page 62 of Time to Bounce

“How about you tell me about…”

“Hey, not to interrupt, but I was about to call you,” she said. “I had a call from someone from the orphanage we got you from. They were letting us know that your birth mother passed away from a disease that might be hereditary, and she recommended us getting you a blood test to make sure you don’t have this genetic malformity.”

Shock poured through my system at her words. “What was wrong with her?”

“Hold on, I wrote it down in case you asked.” She shifted what sounded like papers around. “I can’t find it. But it’s something to do with a blood disorder that makes too much blood or something. Your birth mother didn’t know she had this condition and she died a couple of weeks ago.”

My mouth fell open. “A couple of weeks? This happened a couple of weeks ago and no one thought to tell me?”

I was very open with my mother on my desire to meet my birth mother.

From what I’d learned from my father’s paperwork, my birth mother had me when she was thirteen, and her parents had forced her to put the child up for adoption.

I’d wanted to learn who she was. I wanted to get some background info.

But again, my mother had freakin’ complained that I didn’t love her because I wanted to know my real mother, so I’d put it on the back burner.

But she’d known about this for weeks?

“Oh, no. Only a week and some change. I called the doctor, and I made you an appointment to get your blood drawn next Tuesday,” she explained as if she hadn’t just rocked my world with her words.

I gritted my teeth. “I already told you I don’t like using your doctors.”

“Yeah, but they were able to get you in right away,” she countered. “And I didn’t want you to needlessly worry about it.”

“I can move it up to tomorrow, if you want,” she said after I stayed silent.

Gable’s hand tightened on my hip, and I somehow knew without looking at him that he was trying really hard to keep his mouth closed.

He was angry.

I could feel it in the tension of his muscles.

“I have to work tomorrow,” I replied shortly. “Next Tuesday is fine.”

She sighed. “What about Friday?”

I ignored her. “I can also find my own doctor. Can you send me whatever info you’ve given your doctor so…”

“No, no.” She started to sniffle. “Please, Athena.”

I fucking hated when she used her tears on me.

“Mother.” I drew in a deep, calming breath. “Just…”

“Keep the appointment, honey,” Gable murmured quietly, squeezing my hip for emphasis.

I worked my jaw for a long few moments before saying, “Mother, you remember the reason for my call, right?”

“You asked me if there was anything I wanted to tell you,” she hedged. “I assumed it was for the blood test thing.”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “No. I didn’t know about that. How could I if you hadn’t shared? But I did find something at my house today that was very… informative.”

She drew in a quiet breath. “I can explain.”

Why did she sound like she was so relieved to hear about what it was that I wanted to talk to her about?

“How about you do that?” I suggested.

---