“She was someone your father and I knew through mutual friends,” Brenda explained softly. “She lived in another state.”
“Is she still alive?” Lucas asked directly.
“I don’t know,” Brenda admitted.
“You don’t know?” Lucas gasped. “Then why are you acting like that mark means something terrible?”
“I haven’t spoken to her in more than thirty years,” Brenda said, wringing her hands nervously.
Lucas pointed a shaking finger toward Maya in the bassinet. “Then why are you acting like that mark means something terrible?”
Brenda went completely still, her breathing ragged. “Because Evelyn wasn’t the only person in her family who had it.”
My stomach dropped into a cold pit. “There was a condition in Evelyn’s family,” Brenda confessed.
“What does that mean for my baby?” I demanded, tears welling in my own eyes.
Brenda sat down heavily in the bedside chair. “There was a medical condition in Evelyn’s family, though I don’t remember the exact name. Some relatives had marks like that and were perfectly healthy, but in others, the mark appeared alongside a hereditary blood-vessel problem.”
Lucas stared at her with absolute fury. “You knew there was a severe medical condition in my biological family?”
Brenda looked up at him helplessly. “I convinced myself it didn’t matter.”
His voice dropped to a dangerous whisper. “And you never told me?”
“I convinced myself it didn’t matter because you never had the birthmark on your body,” Brenda wept.
Lucas looked at her like he didn’t recognize the woman who raised him. “You convinced yourself?”
“So you’re telling me my baby daughter might have inherited something serious?” I cried out.
“I was afraid,” Brenda sobbed hysterically.
“Of what?” Lucas yelled. “Afraid of what?”
“Of losing you,” Brenda admitted through her heavy tears.
“So you’re telling me my daughter might have inherited something serious from a family Lucas didn’t even know he belonged to?” I shouted, lightheaded from the shock.
The room seemed to tilt sideways as dizziness washed over me. Lucas grabbed my shoulder to keep me steady as I gasped for air.
“Claire?” Lucas called out in a panic, seeing my pale face.
A nurse rushed into the room after hearing the commotion. She lowered the head of my bed, checked my vital signs quickly, and called for an attending doctor immediately.
A doctor came in a few minutes later and thoroughly examined baby Maya. He asked Brenda to repeat everything she remembered about the genetic history.
Lucas stood over Brenda while the doctor worked. “You knew I had a biological family with a medical history I might need someday!”
The doctor looked up from Maya. “A birthmark by itself doesn’t tell us that your daughter has anything wrong. She’s stable, and nothing I’m seeing right now suggests an emergency. But with a possible family history, we should document it and arrange the appropriate medical follow-up.”
Lucas turned back to Brenda with cold eyes. “You knew I had a biological family with a medical history I might need someday.”
“I know,” Brenda sobbed.
“And you decided I didn’t need to know,” Lucas said bitterly.
“What proof do you have that any of this is actually true?” I asked Brenda, desperate for answers.
Brenda covered her face with both hands once again. “I’m so sorry, truly.”
“No,” Lucas interrupted firmly. His voice was icy quiet. “Not yet. What proof do you have that any of this is true?”
“There was a photograph,” Brenda whispered, lowering her trembling hands.
“What photograph?” Lucas asked instantly.
“A photograph of Evelyn holding you right after you were born,” Brenda explained. “Her sleeve was rolled up, and the mark was clearly visible on her arm.”
Lucas laughed bitterly at the absurdity of it all. “How convenient.”
That realization seemed to hurt him even more than the lie itself. “It’s real, Lucas, I promise you,” Brenda wept.
“Then show me,” Lucas demanded. “Do you still have it?”
Brenda nodded slowly. “Yes, I kept it.”
That answer hurt Lucas deeper than anything else she had said. “You kept a picture of my biological mother for thirty-four years but never thought I had a right to see it?”
Lucas looked away toward the window, trying to hide his emotional break. “I was just so afraid,” Brenda whispered.
“Of losing me?” Lucas asked without looking at her.
Brenda nodded silently. Lucas turned back around with a firm expression. “Go get it right now.”
PART 2
Brenda left the hospital room immediately to drive home. I looked at Lucas, who was pacing back and forth across the linoleum floor. “I feel like I’m going insane,” he whispered, running both hands through his hair.
“Do you believe her?” I asked gently from the bed.
“I don’t know what to believe,” Lucas admitted. “I feel like I’m going insane.”
“I know,” I said softly, holding out my hand to him.
He walked over, grabbed my hand, and looked me in the eye. “Did you know anything about this, Claire?”
“No, absolutely not,” I answered honestly.
He nodded slowly. “I had to ask, I’m sorry.”
Brenda eventually returned an hour later carrying an old, yellowed envelope in her shaking hands. She placed it carefully on the bedside table. Lucas stepped forward and opened it slowly.
Inside was a faded photograph of a young woman standing outside a small suburban house, holding a newborn baby wrapped in a blue blanket. She had dark hair and dark eyes, and she looked visibly exhausted. On her exposed upper arm was a small, distinct oval mark.
It was in the exact same place as Maya’s mark, with the exact same shape.
“I saw Maya’s arm and suddenly I was back in that moment thirty-four years ago,” Brenda whispered softly. “I panicked.”
Lucas stared at the photograph for a long time without saying a single word. Then he sat down heavily in the chair next to my bed.
Brenda wiped a tear and continued explaining. “I didn’t come here today planning to tell you any of this. I saw Maya’s arm and suddenly I was back there, and I panicked.”
“You told us we couldn’t keep our daughter,” Lucas reminded her coldly.
Brenda’s face crumpled with shame. “It sounded like you thought there was something fundamentally wrong with her!” I added.
“I meant you couldn’t just take her home and ignore that birthmark without getting her checked,” Brenda explained desperately. “I knew how awful it sounded the second the words came out of my mouth.”
“It sounded like you thought she was defective,” Lucas said.
