31. Scarlett
Okay, so there was a plan. There was action. The doctor had contacted my birth mother, and we were just waiting to hear back. Which meant there was hope. Thank fuck for that.
God, I couldn’t believe I was even saying this, but I was actually grateful Rhett had been so persistent about getting that information. As much as I hated to admit it, he was right - having that family medical history could make all the difference for the babies. I just wished he had handled it better, I guess.
But in the end, that was how Rhett was. He bulldozed through everything, intent on getting the job done, no matter who he had to run over in the process. It was frustrating as hell, but... I don’t know, maybe it wasn’t all bad. Because when it really counted, when the chips were down, he had shown that he was willing to go to the mat for me. And for the babies. And that... that meant more than I wanted to admit. Fucking hell.
I shifted uncomfortably on the hospital bed as a nurse breezed into the room. “Hiya. I’ve got a bit of lunch for ya. Roast chicken and veg, if that takes your fancy.”
“Thank you. That’s great.” I watched her place the tray carefully onto the rolling table, trying to pretend to be interested. My appetite had been non-existent ever since Dr. Morris dropped that bombshell diagnosis on me and Rhett. But I knew I had to look after myself, for the babies, so I dragged the table toward me and lifted the cloche. The scent of chicken and gravy almost punched me in the face, and it was all I could do not to hurl.
“Not feeling up to it?” The nurse asked, giving me a sympathetic smile.
“Not really, but I’ll manage.”
“I’m glad to hear that because you’re sure going to be busy over the next few days.”
With a forkful of chicken and potato halfway to my mouth, I frowned at her in confusion. “How so?”
“Well, with the thirty samples we’ve got coming in right now, one of them is bound to be a match, which means we can start the infusions. You should see the blood bank. I’ve never seen it so full!”
I stared at her, my brain struggling to compute what she’d just said. Thirty samples? Thirty living, breathing relatives, all here to help me and the babies? My blood rushed in my ears, and I felt a tightness in my chest - oh god, was I going to have a panic attack right now?
“Thirty?” I breathed, the fork slipping from my fingers and clattering against the plate. “Thirty... relatives?” The word felt foreign on my tongue, like I was speaking a language I’d long forgotten.
She nodded enthusiastically. Clearly, my absolute shock hadn’t registered for her. “Isn’t that great? It’s always wonderful when families rally around a loved one like this. I love to see it! And lucky you for having such a big one!” Finally noticing the state I was in, she reached out to give my hand a reassuring squeeze. “I know it must be overwhelming, but try not to worry. We’re gonna find a match, I just know it.”
Overwhelming didn’t even begin to cover it. My chest tightened further, making it hard to breathe. Thirty people who shared my DNA, my history, my very existence. For so long, it had just been me - lonely, isolated, the odd one out. And now, in the span of a few days, that had all changed.
I swallowed hard, willing the tears that threatened to fall to stay put. I couldn’t break down, not here, not now. I had to be strong for the babies. But the mere thought of meeting these strangers, of having to explain my story, my fears, my hopes - it was almost too much to bear.
Hands shaking, I reached for the glass of water on the tray, taking a long, desperate sip. I needed to get a grip, to find some semblance of control in this whirlwind of upheaval. But as the cool liquid slid down my throat, all I could think was: Thirty. Thirty people who had stepped up for me. Jesus fuck.
The door to my hospital room swung open and my gaze snapped up to see Rhett stride in. Before I could even process his arrival, the chipper nurse turned to greet him.
“Ah, Mr. Rivers! Glad you could make it. I was just trying to get our patient here to eat a little something.” She gestured to the untouched tray in front of me. “But I know how it is - the appetite can be the first thing to go when you’re dealing with a high-risk pregnancy and stress.”
Rhett’s eyes flicked to me, and I felt a pang of guilt at the worry I saw there. “How is she doing?” he asked the nurse, his tone uncharacteristically soft.
“Oh, she’s a tough one, this one,” the nurse replied with an encouraging smile. “Hasn’t let a little thing like a high-risk twin pregnancy slow her down. Never stops working!” She turned back to me, giving my arm a gentle squeeze. “Now you try to eat what you can, alright? I’ll be back to check on you shortly.”
With that, she bustled out of the room, leaving Rhett and me alone in a charged silence. I toyed with the edge of the hospital blanket, suddenly unable to meet his gaze. After everything that had happened over the last few days, I knew I owed him an apology.
He cleared his throat, as though he was about to speak, but I cut him off. It was now or never and it was already awkward as fuck.
“Rhett, I...” My voice trailed off as I searched for the right words, my eyes down as I continued to fidget with the blanket. “Um, you were right.”
Rhett didn’t respond right away, and the silence stretched on uncomfortably. I finally glanced up, only to find him watching me with an unreadable expression. Just as I was about to speak again, the corner of his mouth quirked up in a small smirk.
“What? No way. I think I need witnesses for this! You can’t really be saying what I think you’re saying.”
I rolled my eyes, the familiar banter easing the weird tension between us. “Oh, shut up, you ass. I’m trying to apologize here.”
Rhett chuckled, the sound low and rich. “No need, Scarlett. I know you can’t resist my irresistible charm for long.” He winked, earning himself another eye roll from me.
“In your dreams, jackass,” I retorted, but there was no real bite to my words. Somehow, even in the midst of this upheaval, his teasing managed to make me feel a little bit better. “Anyway, now we have a diagnosis and a plan of action, and it’s all because of you. I just wanted to say thank you, and I’m sorry for blowing up at you.”
“Well, since we’re doling out apologies, I’d like to get mine in.”
“Oh. Um, okay.” Yeah, I kinda wasn’t expecting that.
“Scarlett, I’m sorry. I should have handled this situation better instead of just barreling ahead.” He ran a hand through his hair, looking more than a little uncomfortable. “I’m sorry for scaring you and adding more stress. That’s the last thing you need right now.”
“Thank you. I appreciate you saying that.”
“I’m glad. Now eat something, for the love of God.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Scarlett.” His voice had a low tone of warning in it, that I swear vibrated deep in my belly.
Raising an eyebrow, I stabbed my fork into a piece of pumpkin and shoved it into my mouth. “Yes? Is there a problem?”
“You call me sir like that again, it’s not problems you’re gonna have.”
“Hmm. Very interesting. Care to expand on that idea?”
“Now is not the time, or the place. But just you wait.”
“Promises, promises.”
The way he scrubbed his hands over his face let me know I was getting to him. Then I decided to be generous, since we were on such good terms again, and let him off the hook. Besides, it was something I kinda wanted to talk about. Sort of. But not in any detailed way. I wasn’t that great at talking about my feelings. “Anyway, I just wanted to say one more thing. That peppy nurse just told me that…” deep breath, “that there are thirty people here, getting tested, ready to step up. And they wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you. So, yeah, thanks.”
“Yeah, about that….”
Oh. Fuck. Why did his tone have my insides flipping over? “What’s happened now?”
“I, uh, I had a visitor today.” He looked so uncertain, uncomfortable, that it made me even more nervous.
“You did?”
I could see him steeling himself before he continued. “Look, I’m not good with this sort of stuff, so I’m just going to come right out and say it. I met your birth mom.”
My heart lurched. “You...you what?” I stared at him, searching his face for any sign that this was some kind of weird joke. But the tense set of his jaw told me he was deadly serious.
Rhett ran a hand through his hair, like he always did when he was stressed. “Yeah. She, uh, she came to see me. To talk about you. And the babies.”
“What did she say? What is she like? Did she seem…nice?”
“You look like her.”
“Oh.”
“And yeah, she did seem really nice. We talked for a bit. She asked lots of questions about you. I didn’t answer everything, because I wasn’t sure what you would want her to know. But the thing is…”
The way he kept trailing off was really starting to make me anxious. “The thing is what?”
“She really wants to meet you. And, uh, she’s here. In the hospital. Waiting downstairs.”
Fuck. Oh my god. Shit. I don’t know how to deal with this.
“Are you freaking out?”
“Yes. A lot.”
My birth mother was here. In this very hospital. After all these years of wondering, imagining what she might be like, she was just downstairs, close enough that I could walk down there and finally meet her face-to-face.
A million thoughts and emotions swirled through my mind. Excitement, fear, curiosity, dread - it was a tangled mess that left me feeling paralyzed and more than a bit sick. Part of me desperately wanted to run out and see this woman who had given me life. But another part, the part shaped by years of abandonment and rejection, screamed at me to stay put, to protect myself from more potential hurt.
Rhett came and sat beside me on the bed and took my hand in his. “Hey, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” he said softly. “This is your call. I made it clear to Laura that I would give you the heads up first and if you weren’t okay with it, that was that. I wouldn’t have brought her here and forced her on you. She completely understands and will turn around and drive back to New Bern, if that’s what you want.”
I swallowed hard against the lump forming in my throat. As much as his thoughtless actions had upset me before, here was the Rhett that would go to the mat for me. Right here was the Rhett that I needed, more than anything.
“No, it’s...it’s okay,” I managed, my voice choked. “Thank you for handling it for me.” I drew in a shaky breath, trying to calm the storm raging inside me. “I want to meet her. I think... I think I need to.”
He studied me for a moment, those intense eyes of his seeming to bore straight through me. “Are you sure about this? With so much else going on, I don’t want to put you under even more stress.”
“I’m sure. Now that I know she’s here, I can’t not to do it, if that makes sense.”
He nodded once, squeezing my hand before letting go and rising from the bed. “Alright then. I’ll go get her and bring her up, if that’s what you want.”
“It is.”
“I’ll be right back.”
This was really happening. After over thirty years, I was finally going to meet the woman who brought me into this world, then gave me up. The woman whose very existence had been a mystery until recently. A million questions crowded my mind - why did she give me up? Did she ever think about me over the years? Did she regret her decision?
My leg bounced with nervous energy as I waited for Rhett to come back. It felt like hours had passed, eons even, but it was only minutes. When the door finally opened again, I held my breath, my heart climbing into my throat.
And then she was there - a medium height woman with dark brown hair and kind blue eyes. Those eyes widened as they landed on me, her hand flying to cover her mouth.
“Oh... oh god,” she breathed, the words muffled. She looked from me to Rhett and back again, clearly overwhelmed and maybe on the brink of tears.
I opened my mouth, but no words came out. What was I supposed to say in a situation like this?
Thankfully, Rhett took the lead, always my savior. “Laura, this is Scarlett,” he said gently. “Scarlett, this is your…this is Laura Parker.”
Laura. She looked like a Laura, which seemed like a super weird observation to make at a time like this. She took a tentative step towards the bed, her hand dropping from her mouth to reveal a trembling smile.
“It’s so wonderful to finally meet you.” Her voice was thick with emotion. “I’ve thought about this day for so long, but I never imagined...” she trailed off, shaking her head slightly.
I wanted to respond, to say something - anything - but my throat felt tight, like someone had tied a noose around it. All I could do was nod mutely, my gaze drinking in every detail of this stranger who was somehow intimately connected to me.
After a beat, Laura seemed to regain her composure a bit. “Do you mind?” She gestured towards the chair beside the bed.
“Oh! Y-yes, of course,” I managed to stammer out. My heart was pounding so hard I could feel it reverberating in my skull.
As Laura settled into the chair, Rhett cleared his throat. “I’ll give you two some privacy,” he murmured.
“No!” The word burst from my lips before I could stop it. Laura looked startled, but Rhett just raised an eyebrow at me. “Please... please stay,” I said, a little calmer this time.
He studied me for a moment, that unreadable expression on his face again. Then, with the faintest of nods, he moved to sit at the small dining table. I turned back to Laura, feeling small and exposed under her intense gaze. “I’m sorry, I just... I don’t know if I can do this alone right now.”
Understanding flickered in her eyes. “Of course. Whatever you need.” She dragged in a deep breath, folding her hands in her lap. Maybe to stop them shaking? I could relate. “I can’t imagine how overwhelming this must be for you.”
A brittle laugh escaped my lips. “You have no idea.”
We lapsed into silence again, the air thick with unspoken questions and decades of lost time stretching between us. Finally, Laura spoke up again, her voice soft but laced with unmistakable longing.
“Would it be alright if I... if I asked you some things? Just... just to get to know you a little?”
I hesitated, my brain screaming at me to shut this down, to protect myself. But my heart had different ideas. Before I could overthink it, I gave a small nod. “Okay. Yes, that’s... that’s fine.”
A brilliant smile broke across Laura’s face, and in that moment, I saw echoes of myself in her expression. The realization was both thrilling and deeply unsettling.
“So you’re an environmental lawyer.”
“That’s right.”
“I looked you up. You do good work.”
“Thank you.” What a strange new experience for me; a parent who approved of my career choice. “So, um, what about you? What job do you do?”
“I’m a high school English teacher.”
“Also good work. Do you like it?”
“I do. It’s very rewarding. I feel like I was born to teach.”
“That’s great.” It all seemed like such surface level bullshit. Stuff you say to a complete stranger when you’re trying to make polite conversation. It made me feel weird and confused, because, of course, this woman was a complete stranger to me, but I felt so much more than that about her. Added to the weirdness of that feeling were all the questions I was screaming to ask her, but they were stuck in my throat. So instead, I said, “And are you married? Do you have kids?”
The way she reacted to what I thought was a pretty benign question had me frowning.
“I am married, yes.” She swallowed heavily and rubbed her hands together before going on. “To your father.”
I stared at Laura in stunned silence, her words reverberating through my mind like a shockwave. To your father? What did she mean by that? A thousand questions flooded my brain, each one more confusing than the last.
“I... I’m sorry, what?” I finally managed to choke out. “My father?” I don’t know why that was so unexpected. Or gut wrenching. Of all the stories I’d told myself about my mom, her living happily ever after with my…bio dad had never crossed my mind.
Laura nodded slowly, her expression a mixture of sadness and something else I couldn’t quite place. “Yes, your father. His name is Ethan Parker. We’ve been married for twenty years now.” She paused, drawing in a deep breath before continuing. “And we have four more children together.”
Four children. I had siblings - four of them. The realization hit me like a ton of bricks, leaving me dizzy and breathless. All this time, I had been an only child, a single entity drifting through life without any real sense of roots or connection. And now, in the span of a few minutes, that had all changed in the most profound way.
I opened my mouth to respond, but no words would come. How did a person even begin to process something like this?
“I think I’m going to need a minute.” I clambered from the bed and just walked out of the room without a word. Where the fuck was I meant to go? How far could I walk to get away from this? How strong would I need to be to go back into that room? I paced up and down the corridor, caught halfway between fleeing and returning.