Page 60 of Fierce- Royce

She read the letter twice more. It wasn’t long, but just long enough that she shut her eyes and took a few breaths.

There was only one person she could talk to and that was her brother. No one here even knew she was adopted, as it had never come up. She was still surprised she’d told Royce when she hadn’t some of her closest friends.

She sent Dane a text asking if he could call her when he had a minute. She figured it’d be tonight and Royce would be over, but she’d deal with it at that point.

What she didn’t expect was her phone to ring ten minutes later. “Hello,” she said to her brother. “Aren’t you working?”

“I am,” Dane said. “But I’m at the hospital doing rounds and snuck into the lounge. You never ask me to call you, you always text what you need. I guess I figured it was important.”

“It is, but I don’t want to bother you at work.”

“You’re not,” Dane said. “It’s not as if I’ve got patients waiting for me. I’m not going back to the office today. If I get behind I’m in the hospital anyway. I don’t have the kids today either. I’m all yours. What is going on?”

She took a deep breath. “I got a letter from my birth mother delivered to my office today. I just opened it about twenty minutes ago.”

“Really?” Dane asked. “What’s her name again?”

“Emily Bask. She said she knew my name all along. She told herself she’d let me live my life, as she knew I’d have a better one than she could provide, but she’s been thinking of me more and more lately and did a search of me and saw my name here at Fierce and figured she’d try to reach out. She wasn’t on social media much.”

“Does she want to meet you?” Dane asked.

“She left her address, phone number and email address. She’d like to if I am willing. If I’m not, she understood too.”

“Are you going to tell Mom and Dad?” Dane asked.

“At some point. I guess I’m just stunned right now. I never saw this coming.”

She wasn’t sure why though. Lots of people reached out on either side of an adoption in their life. It was just she never really felt the need to. She was happy with the family and life she had. She wasn’t all that concerned about another family she had out there. They were strangers to her. Dane felt the same way about his birth parents.

Maybe it’s because it wasn’t a secret, so she didn’t need to research for information. She really didn’t know and decided it wasn’t worth internally searching for those answers.

“I don’t have a lot of advice for you,” Dane said. “You have to ask yourself if you want to open that up in your life. After reaching out and making contact, it will be hard to walk away again. That’s just my thought.”

“You’re right. I have no anger toward her, but if I meet her, I’m not that much of an ass to say I don’t want to talk to her again either. But I’m not looking for a friendship.”

“I understand,” Dane said. “You have no clue what her life has been like for the past thirty years. She could have married and had kids. They’d be your half siblings. Maybe you want to get to know them. Maybe you don’t. This is a Pandora box that you have to know once it’s opened, there is no closing it. That information is powerful enough to keep drawing you in or playing with your mind.”

This was why she called Dane. He’d get it more than anyone else. “You’ve put a lot of thought into this. I can tell. Why haven’t you said anything about it before?”

“Melanie and I talked about it once. She wanted me to find out more about my birth parents since we were having children of our own. There was part of me that wanted to know for medical purposes, but all these things I’m saying to you crossed my mind.”

“Was Melanie upset you didn’t do what she wanted?” she asked.

“It was one of many fights, but it didn’t stop us from having children. If I feel the need to find out more I can do it. I don’t see that need. Life is hard enough on the kids.”

“And you,” she said. “You had enough pressure and stress in your life and everything you’ve just said would have been one more area filling your head.”

“That’s it exactly,” he said. “Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Other times information can bring you bliss. That letter has opened up the possibility for you.”

“Which sucks,” she said.

“You don’t have to do anything right now. Or you can look into Emily yourself and see what you find. Maybe it’s all good things or it could be horrible and you don’t want that drama.”

“That is good advice too. I’ll sit on it for now and talk to Mom and Dad. I’ve never asked them about her. I bet they know more than we realize,” she said. Her parents would have wanted to keep track just in case. As much as they lectured her and Dane, they always loved and cared for them and would do what they felt was best.

“You’re probably right. I didn’t talk to Mom and Dad about it. I didn’t need someone else’s opinion at that point in my life.”

She laughed. “That’s another good point. I might not want theirs either. I’ll figure it out, but you did make me feel better about this.”

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