Chapter 47
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
“And this is Calliope,” Mariah said, gesturing to a yawning tiger half-submerged in a pond. “She’s been with us for two years.”
“She’s beautiful,” Cassie said. “The animals seem really happy here.”
She scanned the zoo. The grounds were well-manicured, the animals’ signs were vibrant and informational, and cheerful staff members waited near almost every exhibit. It was just as she remembered it from high school.
“They would love to have someone with your expertise caring for them,” Mariah said warmly.
“Can you tell me more about the position? What are the shifts like? Are vets specialized to certain species, or does everyone treat all the animals?”
“It’s pretty typical for zoo medicine. Full time. All the vets tend to treat everyone, and you’ll take turns being on call. Someone’s here every day, including weekends and holidays. There’s a rotation for that, so it’s not every weekend,” Mariah said hurriedly.
Cassie nodded, taking another look around. “And the compensation?”
Mariah gave her a number, and Cassie inwardly cringed.
While zoo medicine was an incredibly specialized field, the pay was among the worst of all veterinary specialties. Money wasn’t everything, but having one income and returning to a higher cost of living in the city would make things significantly tighter.
“It’s a lot of animals, but there’s more downtime than you’d think,” Mariah said. “We’re fortunate that most of the residents are very healthy. And you’ll have exciting opportunities to help us shape our preventative health policies and manage animal transactions.”
Hmm.
“Well, you’ve given me a lot to think about,” Cassie said.
“Would you like to see our lab facilities before you go? They’re state-of-the-art,” Mariah said.
“Of course.”
An hour later, Cassie walked back to her car feeling conflicted.
There were so many positives—a return to her specialty, interesting and varied work.
But she also could get that fix from Willow Bend.
And then there was the bureaucratic side of zoo medicine—she could make recommendations, but the zoo may not always be able to accommodate them, especially when it came to things like animal enclosures.
And the shifts—she would miss holidays, gatherings.
She needed to make a pros-and-cons list, old-school style. But she hadn’t brought a notebook, and a list in her phone didn’t feel official enough. Her parents’ house hadn’t sold yet, and it was only ten minutes away. She could think there.
When she entered the circular driveway for what would probably be the last time, a sense of weariness washed over her.
She had always felt like an outsider in this home. But it was still the place where her dream of being a veterinarian had bloomed, where she and Sammy had stayed up late, making brownies and watching romcoms every summer. And now it would be someone else’s.
She snapped out of it and unlocked the front door, heading straight for her father’s office. He always kept a stack of empty notebooks at his desk.
Thankfully that stack was still there. She yanked open the desk drawers one at a time, but they were all empty.
She let out a frustrated grunt and slammed the middle drawer shut. Something fluttered to the floor, and she bent down to pick it up.
A wash of cold engulfed her.
It was a picture of a young couple. They stood in bathing suits in front of the ocean, all smiles. The woman—more like girl—had flaming red hair, and the man next to her looked startlingly like her adoptive father.
She looked closer. That had to be Elizabeth. And there was no mistaking those eyebrows. That was her adoptive father, standing next to a very not pregnant Elizabeth on the beach.
What. The. Fuck?
Her gaze fell on the gold nameplate that had yet to be packed up. Richard Thompson, M.D.
M.D. Medical doctor.
Richard. Dick.
She backed into the wall, and the picture slipped through her fingers.
Was it possible? Was her adoptive father actually her biological father? Was she the product of an affair, and that was why her mother had always frozen her out?
And her father—did she remind him of Elizabeth? The resemblance was undeniable. Was that why he had kept his distance for her entire life?
She needed to know the truth. The whole truth.
She pulled out her phone with a shaking hand and made a video call to her father.
“Alexandra, I’m surprised to hear from you. Is everything all right?”
The video was an extreme closeup of her father’s eyebrows with part of a beach cabana in the background.
“I need you to look at the screen, Dad. Who is this?” She held the picture up to the camera.
There was a sharp female gasp on the other line.
“Where did you find that?” he asked.
“It fell out of your desk,” she said flatly.
“It’s a long story, Alexandra,” he said noncommittally.
“I’m not an idiot, Dad. This is you and my birth mother. You’re my father, aren’t you? My biological father.”
“Why did you keep that?” Her mother sounded indignant.
“How did you find out?” he asked, ignoring her mother’s question.
“I read Elizabeth’s journals. About how you seduced an eighteen-year-old girl and then abandoned her when she told you she was pregnant. Why would you do that?”
“Your mother and I were going through a rough patch. I was young and stupid. I—I recommitted to your mother after that. I’ve never strayed again.”
“Why would you adopt me?”
“I agreed to take responsibility for my mis—” He cut himself off.
Cassie inhaled sharply. “Don’t stop yourself. Say it. Say I was a mistake.”
“I wanted to take responsibility for bringing you into the world,” he said diplomatically.
Her hands shook. “Why did you adopt me when you knew Mom would resent me every day of my entire life because I was a living reminder of the time you stepped out of your marriage?”
When he didn’t answer, she let out a strangled laugh. “I get it now, Mom. I understand why Sammy was always the favorite. Who could love a product of their husband’s affair living under the same roof?”
Her mother was silent.
Richard sighed. “We—your mother and I—very much wanted a baby. We couldn’t have our own.
Your mother agreed to look past my shortcomings and offer to adopt you.
We showed Elizabeth the life we could give you, the opportunities.
Eventually, she agreed and promised to keep my name off the birth certificate. ”
Cassie’s breath was coming in short, shallow stabs.
“You were innocent in all of this,” he said.
“We thought you were our one chance to have a family, and we didn’t want you growing up in poverty or in the foster care system, where you’d be passed around, living in fear with strangers.
This way, I knew you’d be safe, and we could give you a better future. You weren’t supposed to find out.”
“Did you make her stay away?”
Richard hesitated. “Yes.”
“Richard—” her mother warned.
“We paid her rent for a number of years,” he continued. “She did ask if she could talk to you when you turned eighteen, but we didn’t trust her not to reveal the truth, so we told her that you wanted nothing to do with her. We can’t afford a scandal, Alexandra.”
“How dare you? How dare you take that choice from me? She’s dead, and now I’ll never know her.”
She started pacing. “All my life, I’ve only tried to please you. I was the peacemaker. The hardest worker. The good kid who never got in trouble. I didn’t make a fuss, even when you consistently showed favoritism to Sammy.”
It was getting harder to turn her tornado of feelings into coherent sentences.
“I was so afraid that if I made one mistake, you would give me up. I’ve carried this crushing fear of abandonment my entire life, just to find that you took away my only chance to know my biological mother. The one parent who truly loved me.”
“Alexandra, I—”
“Cassie. It’s Cassie.”
She hung up with shaking hands, then blocked both of her parents’ numbers. The news was not processing. All this time, she had known her biological father.
She dialed Sammy’s number.
“Hi. I need to tell you something.”