“You knew?” I ask, confused.
Finn pulls me into a hug and rests his chin on the top of my head. “I just found out. That’s why I was coming to find you. I know you said not to ask around, but I wanted to know what you were walking into.”
“And what am I walking into?” I push away and walk a few feet away from Billy and my mom’s room, ready to force a direct answer out of someone. “Because so far, I’m standing in a hallway with absolutely no clue what the hell is going on. I don’t know if Mom is okay. I spoke to a crazy attorney who thinks I have a sister. And Billy fucking Coogan is sitting in front of my mom’s door, making sure I can’t see her. It’s all feeling a little too raw at the moment to understand any of it. So how about you help me understand. Please...”
His face falls before he straightens and goes into Dr. Murphy mode. “Your mom has two broken ribs and a fractured pelvis. Physically, she’ll be okay, but she has a long recovery ahead of her. I don’t have all the details about the accident or the charges against her yet. But I do know she was brought in with a three-month-old girl. The baby was in the back seat of your mother’s car when she struck the tree. The infant car seat came unattached from the base, but thankfully, it wedged between the back seat and the back of the passenger seat in front of it, so she wasn’t tossed when the car flipped.”
Oh God.
My stomach sinks as I try to wrap my head around what Finn is saying.
“The baby was kept overnight for observation and is fine. They’ll be releasing her soon.” He rattles off the details like he’s reading a stranger’s chart, and I envy his ability to compartmentalize. “Did your mom ever mention her?”
“You’d know if she had. I would have called you, ranting. My mom can’t take care of herself. No one in their right mind would let her take care of a baby.” I shake my head, trying to wrap it around what Finn and Mom’s attorney are telling me, but I can’t— “Are you telling me I actually have a sister?”
“According to your mother, you do. But Ashton... there’s no father listed on the birth certificate.”
I wish I were surprised.
I doubt Mom even knows who the father is.
I don’t want to think about the things she’s probably done to score her next fix.
“She’s okay though?” I ask as the pieces start to fit together. “The baby? She’s not hurt?”
“I haven’t seen her yet, but from what I was told, she’s fine. Do you want to go see her?” he asks gently, like he’s soothing askittish animal. One who’s ready to bolt. And that’s not like Finn. He doesn’t soften his blows. He doesn’t sugarcoat.
“What aren’t you telling me?” I bite out, not sure how much more I can take but ready to rip off whatever Band-Aid is left.
He looks over at Billy, still sitting in front of Mom’s door, and picks up both my bags as easily as his brother did yesterday. His other arm wraps around my shoulders, and we walk over to the nearly empty waiting area. “Ashton... With no father listed on the birth certificate, and your mother under arrest—even if she wasn’t under arrest, after yesterday... they would have taken the baby away from her and placed her with temporary guardians. There’s no way they would find your mom fit to care for a baby right now. Not when she was driving under the influence with the baby in the car. Child Protective Services has to place the baby with someone in the meantime, and since you’re the only next of kin?—”
The lawyers words from a minute ago click into place.
Your mother refused to speak to me until I got you here to take custody of her.
No.
“I didn’t even know she existed,” I barely breathe out, a mix of shock and guilt threatening to consume me.
“You’re her sister, Ash.”
I step out of my best friend’s hold, the past trying to push into the present. “The last time I was someone’s sister, I got them killed...”
“Ashton—”
“Don’t,” I stop Finn, refusing to go down that path. I can’t.
I have a sister. One who’s alone and needs me.
I can either get over myself and go in there and take care of her, or I can wallow in a pity party for one, like a self-centered asshole and leave her here to be sent away with strangers.
She didn’t ask to be born into my fucked up family.
She didn’t ask to have our mother or me as her only relatives.
None of this is her fault. It’s not mine either, but if I walk away now... that is my fault. That decision would be mine alone. And I may be a stranger, but that doesn’t make her any less my sister.
Squaring my shoulders, I look at my best friend, scared to death but unwilling to let her be alone for another minute. “Take me to her.”
