Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 57099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 285(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 285(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
“Come on. Just… give me something. Anything.” I muttered to myself as I checked each app. It didn’t really surprise me not to find anything, but this had become my life since finding out how sick Brynn had gotten.
The coffee stain on my sweatshirt had taken the shape of Australia. I’d been wearing these clothes for three days straight, changing only my underwear in the tiny hospital bathroom. The nurses had stopped giving me sympathetic looks and started offering the shower in the family room. I’d take them up on it soon. Maybe tomorrow. If Brynn had a good night.
“Ma’am?” A quiet voice broke through my concentration. A new nurse, younger, with kind eyes and a name tag that read Melissa, stood in the doorway. “Can I get you anything? We have some sandwiches in the break room.”
“No, thanks.” My voice came out rougher than I intended, scratchy from crying when Brynn managed to sleep. I cleared my throat. “I’m fine.”
She nodded and disappeared only to return with a chicken salad sandwich, a bag of chips, a carton of milk, and a bottle of water. “Lisa said you hadn’t eaten all night.” She sat her cache on the bedside table and rolled it over to where I sat. “We’ve got standing orders from the senior nurse on the unit to make sure we take care of the mother and the child.” She squeezed my shoulder gently. “I expect most of that to be eaten when I come back in an hour.” Then she left again.
I glanced over at Brynn, her small form barely making a bump under the thin hospital blanket. Her chest rose and fell with shallow breaths, her face pale against the white pillowcase. Her midnight-blue hair, a rebellion I’d allowed because God knows the kid deserved something she could control, now looked dull and flat. The IV in her arm was taped securely.
My beautiful, brilliant, fierce little girl had been reduced to this fragile creature by a stupid strep infection that had spiraled into a nightmare. I’d started the whole “trying to find Rhys” thing the day I’d been told she’d need a kidney transplant. I’d launched my campaign in earnest when they realized she’d developed an antibody in her blood that made her harder to match with a kidney her body wouldn’t reject. Now, I checked every single service I’d subscribed to multiple times a day.
Rhys Leahy had been the love of my life. Still was. Maybe I held on to a pipe dream, but even after he’d basically told me to fuck off and quit taking my visits and returned all my letters, Rhys captured my heart and I didn’t want anyone else. I had our daughter. She’d been more than enough to fill my life with so much joy.
Now, I needed Rhys like I’d never needed him before. I didn’t really understand everything the doctors tried to explain other than whatever antibody she had in her blood now made finding a suitable kidney donor next to impossible outside of an immediate family member, preferably a twin or a parent. My blood type didn’t match. Which made Rhys the only person who might be a match for our daughter.
My phone buzzed and a notification banner appeared at the top of my screen. An email. Probably just another hospital billing reminder or pharmacy alert. I swiped it away without reading it, then froze as my brain registered what I’d glimpsed.
An email from one of the DNA sites with a message. I tried not to get excited. But, Goddammit, even the very distant relative notifications had been few and far between. I opened my email app then saw the name and fucking froze.
Ada Leahy. Rhys’ sister.
My fingers trembled so badly I dropped the phone onto my lap, my heart suddenly hammering against my ribs like it wanted to escape. After six months of searching, after eleven years of nothing, after pushing away the memory of him for so long, I stared down at the message sitting in my inbox, afraid to touch my phone for fear this wasn’t real. I knew before I even opened the message Ada might have been the one to send her DNA, but Rhys would be the one to answer me now.
“Jesus,” I whispered, picking up the phone again. My hands shook so violently I had to grip it with both of them to steady it. The screen blurred as tears welled in my eyes. I’d prepared for this moment for months. Rehearsed what I would feel, what I would do. But now that it was here, all my preparation evaporated like morning dew under a brutal sun. I squeezed my eyes shut, took a deep breath, and opened the email.
The message was short. Brutally short.
Lavender. Why are you looking for me?
That was it. No pleasantries, no “How are you after all these years.” Just a direct question that cut through everything else. But it was him. He’d recognized my name, known it was me. Which meant he had to know Brynn was his daughter. It hurt he didn’t acknowledge her when there was no way he didn’t remember. Rhys never forgot anything. He was brilliant, something he’d passed on to his daughter.