Chapter 26
LEAH
"What is it?"
I stared at the screen, vaguely aware of everyone staring at me. Josiah speaking, his hand on my back.
My heart raced. My hands were damp. The churning in my stomach increased. I swallowed back my lunch, but the smell of the ham and salami in front of me was nauseating now rather than appetising.
"Leah. What is it?" Josiah said again. "What do the test results say?"
I tore my eyes from the email. I almost couldn't say the words out loud. If I did, that might make this real. Was there any chance this was a dream? No, my phone felt real in my hand. The email was right there, in front of me, clear as day in black and white.
My ears rang in the silence that was profound as they all stared at me, waiting, concerned.
I swallowed again.
"Negative," I whispered finally. "The results came out negative. I'm not related to Gavin Clarke."
Those were the last words I expected to say. I almost couldn't believe I was hearing them from my own mouth. This was supposed to be the one answer I got that would settle one big question. Science would tell me I was his daughter and somehow we'd figure out the rest of it.
But science gave me nothing but cold words on a bright screen. Negative. Like that wouldn't shatter me right down to my bones. I thought I found myself, but it turned out I was as lost as ever.
"Wait, what?" Fiona was the first to break the shocked silence that followed my words. "You're not?" She reached over to take the phone from my hand and read it for herself. "This doesn't make any sense." She blinked a couple of times, but read the email over again.
"So you're not Coral Clarke?" Holly asked, her lips apart in confusion. "But we all saw the photo."
"Yeah, we did," Whitney said. "It was definitely Leah in that photo." She seemed to be thinking hard, trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together even though most of the pieces were missing. As if somehow it could still match the picture on the box if she kept trying.
"What bullshit is this?" Connor asked. He stared at my phone like it insulted him personally. Or the DNA lab had. If anyone would storm down there and demand an explanation, it would be him, but what would be the point? The results were what they were. He didn't like it, but science had spoken.
I glanced over to Josiah. His tanned face was slightly paler than usual.
"I don't know what this means." The last thing I wanted was for people to start pointing fingers at him again just because of this.
Whatever was going on here didn't change what happened that day.
It didn't change the fact he didn't let a little girl die.
If anyone was going to suggest otherwise, they'd have to go through me first. Including anyone in this room.
He gave a barely perceptible shake of his head. "I don't know either. It doesn't change what I saw."
"I know," I said. "It raises more questions."
"Are you going to speak to Gavin?" Fiona placed my phone down on the table.
I considered for a moment before dismissing the idea. As rattled as I was, I had enough sense not to create more trouble for him.
"He's been through enough. Whatever's going on here, my mother might have the answers. I'm going to have to go down and speak to her, face-to-face." She wasn't going to like it, but there was no other way. The only chance I had to resolve this was to ask her in person.
"We'll come with you," Riley said immediately.
"You have work," I reminded him.
"Not if we go tomorrow," Connor said. "We don't have any tours booked for Monday."
"And the pub is closed," Brooks added. "I'm not letting you confront her unless I'm there too."
"Me either," Josiah said softly. "I can get away from the lodge for a while. I'm owed a bunch of sick days."
Whitney leaned forward, her elbows on the table. "You better keep us updated with everything. If I wasn't working tomorrow, I'd be right there with you."
"We will," I assured her. She'd call and text every chance she got if we didn't fill her in regularly. Fiona and Holly too. They'd become almost as invested in this as me. They all had.
"We'll leave first thing," Connor said. He turned to Brooks. "Don't say anything to your dad. I want to see the expression on their faces when Leah asks about all of this."
Brooks rolled his eyes. "No shit, Sherlock. I could have told you that."
"Yeah, well you didn't," Connor said with a shrug. "So I did."
"Are you going to be at each other's throats the entire time?" I asked. "Because I'll leave you behind if you are."
Connor turned his glare on me. "The hell you will. Don't make me tie you up so you can't leave."
Riley grinned. "Can we do that anyway?"
Whitney threw her hands over her eyes. "Can we have this conversation when I'm not here?”
"What are you doing?" Connor asked her. "You know you can still hear us with your hands over your eyes, right?"
"I can pretend." She peeked at us from between her fingers.
Riley chuckled. "I remember that time we were watching a horror movie and you covered your ears, but kept on watching."
Her hands still in front of her face, she flipped him off with both middle fingers. "How old was I? Ten or eleven? It made sense to me then."
"Apparently it still makes sense to you," Fiona teased.
Whitney huffed. "Don't you start." She finally lowered her hands, and picked up her wine to take a gulp. "See, you're all driving me to drink."
"Don't blame us, Whit." Connor took a sip of his own beer.
"I'll absolutely blame you," she said, smirking playfully at him. "If nothing else, it's fun."
Brooks glanced over at me. "I like this."
I offered a faint smile. "Me too." I could tell what he was thinking. We could have been more like them. Always teasing and making fun of each other, but they'd had each other's backs since childhood. Fiona, Holly and Riley too.
Josiah also looked wistful.
"We have each other now," I told them both.
"Yeah, we do," Josiah said. "Whatever happens tomorrow, we've got you." He slipped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me to him until my cheek was pressed against the stubble of his.
"And after tomorrow," Riley added. "We don't care who you are or where you came from. The only thing that matters is who you are right now."
"Did you read that on a motivational meme?" Connor shot him a glance.
"Yes, and I've been saving it up for the right moment," Riley said unapologetically. "Turns out, this is it. You got a problem with that, bro?"
"Not at all, bro." Connor patted his back a little too hard.
"It was mushy, but I agree with the sentiment.
I don't give a shit about Leah's past, or anyone else's.
Right now is what matters." He glanced down at the table for a moment before raising his eyes and nodding at Josiah. His hazel eyes laced with regret.
"Bygones," Josiah said simply.
"Yeah, bygones," Connor agreed.
"Water over the falls," Riley said. "Which is actually ironic. I used to think if we looked hard enough, we might find Coral out there, beside the white water. Or hiding under a tree near the zip line. Or… Whatever. Instead, she found us."
"Yeah, I found you," I said. The rest of it, we had yet to figure out. "It would be ironic though."
"It makes sense to me," Brooks said with a sly smile. "It wouldn't surprise me if Leah was raised by wild animals."
I flipped him off, but laughed at the same time. "Funny, I was going to say the same about you. Except you wouldn't have survived the cold."
His hand went to his chest, right over his heart. "Direct hit. Damn, woman. That's some aim you have."
"And don't you forget it." I stuck my tongue out at him.
"As if you’d let me." He stuck his tongue out, right back at me.
"As if you want me to," I retorted.
"And you think you missed something not growing up here," Whitney said. "You two are as bad as me and Connor."
"Except you and Connor don't fuck each other," Riley said, grinning at the opportunity she'd handed him.
"Gross, gross, gross," Whitney groaned. "No, we'd never go there!"
Riley just grinned bigger. "You don't know what you're missing."
"Leah," Whitney complained. "Make them stop!"
I laughed. "Riley, stop grossing Whitney out. You wouldn't want to share Connor with her too anyway."
Riley rubbed his chin before pointing a finger at me. "Good point. Sooner or later I'd get involved and that would be like fucking my sister."
"Don't knock it until you've tried it," Brooks said over the top of his beer bottle, right before he took a sip.
I reached over and poked him in the forearm. "Behave yourself."
He just grinned and took a sip.
"Is anyone ready for birthday cake?" Holly asked.
I realised we'd all finished eating while we were talking and laughing.
"You aren't going to sing happy birthday to me, are you?" I grimaced.
"Of course we are." Riley pushed his chair back and stood to start gathering empty plates. "As loud as we can."
"I have to agree with Riley," Fiona said. "Nice and loud. So the whole town can hear."
"I thought they liked me," I said to Josiah.
"I can kidnap you and take you away from here, if you want," he offered.
"Don't even fucking try," Connor growled, but he clearly knew Josiah wasn't being serious. Unless that was something I wanted. "We're going to sing, and you're going to sing along with the rest of us." He levelled a finger at Josiah.
Josiah gave me an apologetic look and a one-shouldered shrug. "I guess we're doing this." His dark eyes hinted at humour, like he really didn't mind at all.
I made a note of that for when it was his birthday. He'd probably hate being sung to more than I did.
I sighed dramatically. "Fine, I guess I'll have no choice but to let you.
" But, honestly, it was taking my mind off everything else.
For that I was grateful. Too many possibilities were still on the proverbial table.
What had my mother done? Who was I really?
Did she even have the answers? And if she did, would she give them to me?
Connor looked as if he might smack my ass for suggesting I had any choice, but he helped pack up the table to make room for the cake. Apparently punishment could wait until the other girls had left. He wasn't going to forget, that was for sure.
Holly placed a couple of candles on top of the cake and lit them before putting it in the centre of the table.
As they sung happy birthday to me, it occurred to me that I couldn't even be sure it was my birthday.
For all I knew, it could be a completely different date.
I might not even be the age I thought I was.
I could be a couple of years older, or a couple of years younger. I might not even be from Canada.
I managed to smile, but I felt like the cards of my life had been thrown up in the air and scattered on the wind. Did my mother even know?
Was she my mother? If she wasn't, then who was she and what the hell had she done?