Page 65 of Destiny

Ruby scouts it out, looking everywhere, until we find a pile of cardboard boxes in a secluded alcove behind the furnace and water heater. Jack and I help Ruby pull them all down. They’re full of books, papers, toys. Junk mostly, until we get to the last one. Ruby pulls it away, and a plug pops out of an electric socket that was hidden by the pile of boxes.

“Bingo,” she says. “Here’s something you don’t see every day.” She opens up the cardboard box, and inside is what looks like a college dorm minifridge.

Jack frowns. “A refrigerator?”

“This isn’t a refrigerator,” Ruby says. “It’s a freezer.” She starts to pull it out of the box, but I take it from her, even though it’s not that heavy. The cord hangs out from a hole in the cardboard. I hastily plug it back into the socket.

“What do you think is in here?” Ruby asks.

“Clueless,” I say.

Ruby opens it.

Vials.

Small vials.

“What the hell is all that?” Jack asks.

“This,” Ruby says, pulling out a vial and reading the name on it, “appears to be your father, Jack.”

She hands the vial to me. Written in a black sharpie isSean Murphy, and the date?

Over half a century ago.

Dad grabs the vial from me. “Let me see that.” He drops his jaw.

“It can’t be,” I say.

“You’ve always said Sean Murphy is a pretty common Irish name,” Jack says.

Dad is still staring at the vial, saying nothing. His eyes are wide and his jaw rigid.

“I have, and it is.” I squint to read the small print on the vial. “But the date checks out. I think somehow she got my great-uncle’s sperm.”

Ruby pulls out some more vials from the refrigerator.

And then she gasps.

Nearly drops the vial.

“What is it?”

She doesn’t say anything, simply hands it to me.

I drop my jaw.

Bradford Steel.

Chapter Twenty

Ava

“Wake up,” I say.

My grandmother doesn’t move.

“For Christ’s sake,” I mutter. “Wake up, old woman.”

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