The Talk of the Town

Chapter Eight

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Halle looked up from the cup of tea in front of her at Shania sitting across from her at their kitchen table. After the revelations in Quinton’s office one of the other coaches came to the door to talk with Quinton. Halle had used the interruption to quickly leave with Shania.

Too much was happening. Too many things coming to light at such an awkward time. Her mind still reeled from the revelation. Quinton was Shania’s father! Out of all possibilities, how in the world had he turned out to be the donor?

“Mom,” Shania called her name.

Halle blinked and focused on her daughter’s confused face. “We need to verify the results.”

“That’s what you’re thinking? What happened? Is it true? Did you go to a sperm bank or something?” Shania leaned forward with each question until she was nearly folded over the table.

Halle gently pushed Shania’s shoulder so she would sit back up. “It wasn’t a sperm bank. It wasn’t like that.”

“Then what was it like? You’re still not telling me what happened and why. I think I deserve to know now.”

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.

Halle’s cell phone rang. Her cousin Kayla’s number flashed on the screen. Probably calling to ask about the cousins’ weekend. She sent the call to voice mail, not wanting to deal with that right now.

“Go shower and get some rest. We can talk more later.”

She expected Shania to argue or push for more. Instead, she nodded and stood. Shania turned and walked toward the door, her shoulders slumped. Halle’s heart broke.

“Shania,” she called. When Shania turned around, she tried to smile. “We’ll figure this out, okay? No matter what it is, don’t we always make a way? We will this time, too.”

Shania’s lips lifted in a weak smile before she left. Halle’s phone rang. Kayla again. She answered instead of sending her cousin to voice mail.

“What’s up, Kayla?”

“Umm... Halle, I’m gonna ask you something and I need you to not get mad, okay?” Kayla spoke quickly, her tone already telling Halle she was about to have to deal with some foolishness.

Halle frowned. “Are you changing the plans for cousins’ weekend again? I already told you we don’t need a spades tournament. Mick will act the fool.”

“Nah, it’s something else.”

“What is it?” Halle sipped her cold tea and wondered what new game her cousin had discovered and wanted to include in the weekend.

“Look, there’s no easy way to say this so I’m just gonna ask. Is Quinton Shania’s daddy?”

Halle spit the tea across the table. “What? Why would you ask that?”

“See, that’s why I said you can’t get mad, alright. Look, Zach said he overheard y’all talking in Quinton’s office and that’s what he heard. I told him that can’t be true because ain’t no way you wouldn’t have told me that Quinton was her daddy.”

Halle pinched the bridge of her nose. “Shit, you’ve got to be kidding me.” Zachariah and Kayla had been dating for years. Halle hadn’t considered they’d be overheard. Or that if they were overheard that Zachariah would go back and tell her cousin immediately. This day was getting even worse.

“See, that’s what I thought. I told you you heard wrong,” Kayla yelled, obviously talking to Zachariah. “You can’t be just saying stuff without being sure. You know how rumors go in this town. You gonna have everyone talking about Halle and Shania.”

“That’s why I asked,” Zachariah said in the background. “I wasn’t trying to spread rumors.”

“He didn’t hear wrong,” Halle mumbled.

“Wait, what?” Kayla nearly screeched. “Zach, hush. Halle, what you say?”

Halle looked at the ceiling and wished that the light fixture over the table would fall, hit her on the head and she’d wake up tomorrow realizing this was just a really bad dream. The light remained in place. Which meant she had to deal with this immediately.

“He didn’t hear wrong. Did anyone else hear?”

“Hold up! Quinton’s her daddy for real. How could you not tell me?” The accusation in Kayla’s voice made Halle’s stomach twist. She was going to have everyone asking her the same question. From her family to her friends, and even the people who worked at the school district.

“It’s a long story, but I don’t want to get into that right now. Ask Zachariah if anyone else overheard.”

Kayla asked. “Nah, no one else that he knows.”

Halle let out a breath. The last thing they needed was for this to be on the Peachtree Cove gossip circle before she and Shania had a chance to figure out what this meant.

“Well... I don’t think no one else heard,” Zachariah said a second before she could feel any relief.

Halle groaned. Her life was about to get out of hand.

“I never should have listened to you,” Quinton said later that night when he was on the phone with his baby sister, Dawn.

Dawn scoffed before replying. “About what? I always give you good advice.” The sound of her fingers tapping on her keyboard were in the background. Dawn worked remotely as a training coordinator for an insurance company. She’d said she was chatting with her colleagues in India when he’d called to tell her just how much her advice had thrown his life for a loop.

“Not this time. My life is about to turn upside down.”

The typing stopped. “Ooh, you may need your life turned upside down. Your life is way too boring considering you were a professional athlete.”

Quinton paced back and forth in his living room. He’d come home, showered and changed into joggers and a T-shirt, and hoped to spend the evening watching a fantasy football show on the sports network. He would not be able to focus on anything football related for the night or foreseeable future.

“I like it boring,” he said. “That kept me out of trouble and my name out of the headlines.”

“Are you about to be in the headlines?” He could visualize the delighted smile on his sister’s face with those words. She loved it whenever he got attention.

“Lord, I hope not,” he sighed and shook his head.

“What’s going on?” The teasing had left her voice and concern crept in.

He stopped pacing and stared at the family picture of him, his sister and their parents on the wall. His mom had insisted they take the picture for holiday cards the year before. “Remember that time we were hanging out at Christmas and I told you about the donation I made in college?”

“Donation?” A heartbeat later she sucked in a breath. “Oh, that donation.”

“Yeah. That one. I wondered if I had a kid out there and you told me to do an online DNA test just to see if I got any hits.”

“Uh-huh, I remember. You didn’t get any hits.”

Quinton stared at the picture and tried to imagine Shania in it. If Shania was there, then Halle would be there, too. His heart rate sped up. What the hell was happening to his life?

“Back then I didn’t.”

There was a long pause and Quinton could imagine his sister’s brows drawing together as the meaning of his words worked their way through her brain. She gasped after several seconds. “Nooooo!”

“Yeah.” He turned from the picture and started pacing again.

“You found your kid?”

Your kid. The words hit him like a freight train. He had a kid. A kid! Biologically, but did that make Shania his kid? Did he have any right to claim her as his daughter considering how she was conceived?

“More like she found me.”

“Aww... I have a niece!”

Quinton stopped pacing. His sister sounded delighted. She wasn’t supposed to be delighted. She was supposed to be stunned, like he was. “Okay, stop it right there. Don’t go calling her your niece or anything. I don’t know what any of this means.”

“How did she find you? Did she call you or message you through the website where you took the test? Or maybe she hunted you down via social media. You know, she would see that you played professional football. I hope she didn’t come to you with some sob story. I don’t care if she is your kid. She can’t just try and milk you for every dime you’ve got.”

Quinton shook his head. That was like Dawn; she could go from zero to a hundred in less than ten seconds. Which meant she’d see the bright side in a situation and before you could think things were great, she’d also hit you with the worst-case scenario.

“She didn’t come to me with a sob story. And she didn’t come to me via social media or the website. She came up to me after football practice.”

“She hunted you down in person? Oh no, that’s the sign of a stalker.”

“Hold up, before you go left, let me explain. It’s not that bad, but kind of worse. She lives in Peachtree Cove.”

“What!”

Quinton jerked the phone away. When Dawn didn’t continue yelling, he put it back to his ear. “Not only that, she plays football.”

“Wait! The girl on your football team is also your daughter? Quinton, how in the world did that happen?”

He sank down on the couch. “I wish I knew.”

“Oh my God, it’s meant to be. We always wondered why you took that job in that small town instead of coming back here. Now I know. It was fate.”

“It’s not fate. It’s messed up. Dawn, don’t you know how messed up this is? My kid is one of my players. I don’t even know if I can call her that. What does this mean? What does this make me to her? Am I supposed to step in and try to be a father now?”

“Do you want to be a father?”

He thought about raising a kid. He was a coach because he wanted to give back. To pour into the younger generation some of the support and respect that hadn’t been poured into him. He felt responsible for every kid on that team and wanted them to all feel like they were a part of a family. Now one of them really was his family. He didn’t know how to handle that.

He jumped up and started pacing again. “I don’t know. I don’t know how knowing this is supposed to change anything. Halle wanted—”

“Who’s Halle? Your daughter?”

“No, Halle is her mother.”

“Ahh, gotcha.”

“Halle wanted an anonymous donation. She didn’t want her child’s father to be a part of her kid’s life. I should have thought of that when I did the DNA test.”

“Well, your daughter found you, so obviously she wants to know who her dad is.”

He thought about Shania’s eyes as she’d confronted him. Straightforward and insistent. He looked back at the family picture. His eyes. She wasn’t going anywhere.

Then he remembered the horror on Halle’s face with the revelation. “Her mom can still say that I’m not allowed to be involved.”

He wouldn’t be surprised if that was what Halle wanted. They were barely on each other’s radar. Both distant employees in the Peachtree Cove school district. He’d noticed her because she was a good-looking woman. She’d only noticed him because she’d wanted to make sure he wouldn’t treat her daughter unfairly. Otherwise, she never would have looked twice at him.

“Can’t you fight for rights?”

“What rights? Come on, I didn’t exactly make the donation because I wanted kids or because I wanted to be involved. I made that donation so Mom and Dad wouldn’t get kicked out of their apartment. I made the donation and moved on with my life. I never thought about it again.”

“I don’t believe that. Otherwise you wouldn’t have spilled your guts that day after Christmas,” Dawn said, slapping away his bullshit of an answer. “You admitted then that you always wondered what had happened. Who’d gotten your donation and if you had a kid out there. Admit it, Q, you wanted to find your child. Now that you have, you can’t just turn your back and pretend as if you don’t know.”

“But that doesn’t mean I can force my way into their life. Or that I’ll be welcome.” That Halle would welcome him.

“I mean...true, but you never know. Things are kind of messy right now. It’s going to take some time for things to settle down. Just take it one day at a time. You’ve found her. That’s the good thing.” Dawn’s voice was filled with optimism.

“Maybe you’re right. I’ll get with Halle, and we can figure out what the next steps should be.”

Even though he had a pretty good idea based on her reaction that she wouldn’t want any next steps. The way she grabbed Shania and rushed out of his office made him think she didn’t want him to have anything to do with her or Shania.

“I needed to tell someone, but can you keep this just between us?” Quinton wasn’t ready for his parents and their give me grandchildren request right now. Figuring this out with Halle, the school, the team, was going to be hard enough.

“You’re not going to tell Mom and Dad?”

“Not right now. Not while I’m still trying to figure out what all this will mean. You know how Mom and Dad are. They want a grandkid more than anything. If they get even a hint of this, they’ll be down here making things worse. Promise me, Dawn, that you won’t say anything.”

His sister sighed. “Fine. I won’t say anything until you tell me to.”

“I mean it. Don’t let it slip out or anything like that. They can’t know until I say they need to know.”

“What if your daughter finds them?” she said smugly.

“Dawn,” Quinton said in a serious voice. Shania had looked for him. Now that she found him there was no need for her to look for his parents.

“I’m just saying. What if she does?”

“I’ll worry about that if it happens,” he countered. “But unless that happens, then we won’t bring it up until I say it’s time.”

“What if you never say it’s time?”

“Dawn, please.” His voice snapped with exasperation. His sister was like a dog with a bone on some things. She was decent at keeping a secret, but she would eventually spill. He knew he couldn’t hide this from his parents forever, but he needed a window before involving them.

“Fine. You’re right. I won’t say anything.”

“Good. The last thing I need is for them to just show up here and make this situation worse.”