As if my mouth were moving of its own volition, I heard it say, “Um, guys, can we talk?”
Sloane and Caroline shared a glance that let me know they somehow knew this was coming.
“Is this about Mark?” Caroline whispered.
I was taken aback. I crossed my arms. “Um, no. Why would it be about Mark?”
“No reason!” Sloane chimed in.
I looked warily from one sister to the other.
“I think we need to go to the conference room,” I said after an awkward silence.
“Oh, wow,” Sloane said. “So this is serious.”
“Oh, my God,” Caroline said, closing the binder and following me through the door as I led them to the other room. “Are you OK?”
I nodded gravely, closed the door behind us, and sat down in a woven navy-and-white Serena & Lily chair at the round marble Saarinen table, and Caroline and Sloane took their seats on either side of me.
I took a deep breath and took one of their hands in each of mine. “I don’t know how to say this,” I began.
Four eyes round as saucers were trained on my face, rapt with attention and dread. I felt nauseated for a million reasons at once. They were going to be upset. I didn’t want to tell them. I didn’t want this to be true. Mom, Jack, Caroline, and Sloane were family. Real, true family. Where did that leave me? But again, sisters’ code. It was my responsibility to tell them.
“I think Jack is your biological father.”
They both sat stock-still. I thought they were in shock until I realized that Sloane’s hand suddenly felt sweaty in mine. Sloane sweated when she was lying.
Caroline glanced at Sloane. “What would make you think that?”
I pulled my hands away. “Why do you not look surprised?”
“No, we are surprised,” Sloane said, speaking for both of them, which was my second clue that they definitely knew this already.
“We suspected,” Caroline said. “But we didn’t know for sure.”
“You suspected, and you didn’t even ask Mom about it?” I asked.
“Says the girl who wouldn’t get her blood-test results for six weeks,” Caroline shot back.
Touché, I thought. But I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of saying so.
“So that’s what you were talking about,” I said, the picture beginning to become clear in my mind. “It was lucky Mom couldn’t let go of Jack even after she married Dad, because if she had, you wouldn’t be here.”
I could see that Sloane was starting to get worked up now. “When we onlysuspectedhe was our sperm donor, it was one thing...” she whispered. “But knowing for sure feels really different. Are you positive, Em?”
I nodded. “Mom and Jack were looking at photo albums, and I overheard their conversation. It’s definitely true.”
Caroline took a deep breath. She looked at Sloane. “So now it’s real. Now we have to face it.”
I could feel my heart racing. So many thoughts were running through my mind, but the one I spit out first was, “Oh, my God! Do you think Mom cheated on Dad?”
Sloane gave me an incredulous look. “Em, come on.”
I got myself back together. Mom was our moral compass. She was the one always teaching us right from wrong. She was realistic about the world, but there were some things that were black and white. She might have lied to us, but she wouldn’t have done that to Dad.
“Dad couldn’t have known this,” Sloane said, her face turning red. “There is no way that our father let Mom’s ex-boyfriend be our sperm donor. Do you think?”
They might have suspected all of this earlier, but you could tell it was finally beginning to sink in, and now the emotions that my sisters had been holding back were flooding them.
