Avery hadn’t found out about her relationship to the Moonflower Cove Mackenzies until after her interview at Taylor Memorial. She’d gone home and googled Vera and easily found her biography on the hospital's website. Vera mentioned her family in the biography as well as her wife. And it was then Avery realized she’d found her estranged aunt, Isla Mackenzie. The timeline added up so perfectly that Avery knew it had to be her.
But how could she tell them? Even eight years after she found that out, she still hadn’t told Vera or Isla. After getting accepted into the residency program at Taylor Memorial, Avery planned to spend four years there before transferring to another hospital to start her own practice. It hurt her heart to see a part of her family she never knew about being so happy in the Cove while Avery spent all her time alone with no family or friends. She desperatelywanted to connect with them but was so scared to say anything.
Instead Avery had poured herself into work. So much so that she had been hired at Taylor Memorial after her residency. And that was how she ended up elbow-deep in Blake’s abdomen pulling out her baby girl.
Despite her emotions being heightened the entire time, the surgery had been uneventful. The baby’s umbilical cord had been wrapped around her neck once, which was what was dropping her heart rate with the contractions. But both mom and baby were healthy, and that was all that Avery was worried about. Vera, who was standing by Blake’s head looking over the drape, was explaining everything to her as Avery cut the baby’s cord. Her eyes locked with Vera over the drape.
“You made a great decision to get her out safely.”
Avery wasn’t sure if she was talking to her or Blake, but her words brought tears to Avery’s eyes. Getting that validation from Vera along with watching Vera comforting Blake and Alexis sent her emotions over the edge. Her parents were never like that with her. They weren’t the comforting or loving kind. Hell, they had cut her out of their lives when they found out she was gay without a second thought. Vera and Isla would never treat their kids that way. She couldn’t help but wonder how her life could have been different if she’d been born to a different Mackenzie.
She performed the rest of the surgery in a daze. Avery felt like she was just going through the motions as she showed the baby to Blake over the drape, handed her off to a nurse, and stitched Blake up. Not lingering in the OR after her job was done, she nearly ran to the locker room as tears poured out of her eyes. Leaning back onto her locker, Avery slowly sank down to the floor as she pulled her knees up to her chin.
Her tears were a mix of scared, angry, and sad ones. She had been so scared about something happening to Blake or the baby that she hadn’t fully sat with that emotion yet. It was all crashing into her now along with the other two which were crushing her at an astonishing rate. Avery was angry that she’d never told Isla or Vera who she was. That she was Gena Mackenzie’s daughter and had been disowned by her parents since she was eighteen. That she was so damn lonely she didn’t have anyone to go to after a hard day at work.
Avery knew that, somewhere in the hospital, Vera, Isla, Blake, and Alexis were all celebrating Amelia’s birth together. They were probably happily crying as they held her and marveled at how cute she was. All the while Avery was alone and sobbing her eyes out at the fact she had no one all because of her dumb ass decision to never speak up and bring the truth of her past into the light.
It was her own selfish self that kept her from having the family she desperately wanted, and Avery was struggling to keep living with that fact. Maybe it was time she transferred to another hospital. The Mackenzies already had an established family and life in the Cove. Avery wasn’t a part of that. No matter how badly she wanted to be.
I should have said something as soon as I found out,Avery scolded herself for the millionth time. She wished she could go back and change her past actions. But with eight years gone since then, how could she say anything now? Isla and Vera would probably be pissed at her for not saying anything. Vera would probably regret hiring her since it was clear Isla was estranged from her family.
So maybe Avery had made the right decision by not telling them.
Even if her tears and broken heart were saying otherwise.
