Poppy walked around the bed and lowered herself into the seat beside her brother. “When AJ wasn’t sure who you were, he asked a friend, Maddox Cruz, to look into you.”
“Out of San Francisco, TTT Security Systems.”
“Um, I don’t know, maybe. I know he has a charity?—”
“Fostering the Future,” Deacon cut in.
“Yes,” Poppy confirmed. “Do you know him?”
“By reputation, he’s a good guy.”
“Oh good, okay, well, this is what he discovered.” Poppy handed Deacon a manilla envelope. As Deacon opened it, she continued, “Your mom is alive. Her name is Selma Montez, and she lives in a small town on the Oregon coast called Valentine Bay.”
Deacon stared down at the report, reading the findings she’d just spoken aloud. How could that be possible? It couldn’t be. This had to be a mistake. Right?
“I’m so sorry, Deacon.” Poppy’s voice was quiet. So quiet he almost didn’t hear it.
“No, this is…” He was shaking his head back and forth slowly. “This is wrong. This can’t be right.”
He knew what he was reading was impossible, but he was staring at the DNA findings. His entire life was flashing in his mind. Every conversation he’d had with his parents. Different scenes started making highlight reels. His dad’s controlling ways. His mom’s instability.
He felt like the walls were closing in on him. He felt like he couldn’t breathe. He felt like his chest was going to explode or maybe implode.
“Heyyy Popp—” Jenna was whispering cheerfully when she entered but then must have sensed the energy in the room, because she immediately apologized. “Sorry. I just…um, I just need to grab my purse and I’ll be out of here.”
Poppy ejected from her seat like a Jack-in-the-Box. “No, don’t go on my account. I am actually exhausted, and AJ is in the car waiting. He wanted me to go straight home, for the baby, but I insisted I come here. I promised him I wouldn’t be more than ten minutes because I had to...” She motioned to the paperwork she’d just handed Deacon.
“Oh.” Jenna glanced between Poppy and Deacon as if she were intruding.
“Please don’t go,” Deacon pleaded, he never pleaded. “Please.”
He didnotwant to be alone.
Jenna gave him a quick nod.
Once Poppy saw she’d agreed, she turned to her brother and bent down and gave him a hug. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”
As she exited the room, she smiled at Jenna and squeezed her arm. When she did, a panicked expression came over Jenna’s face, and she looked at the sleeping beauty in the hospital bed.
“What happened? Did something happen? Is Tabitha okay?” Jenna clasped one hand on her chest and one hand over her stomach as all the color drained from her face.
“No, I mean yes,” Deacon stood. “She’s fine, it’s not Tabby, she’s just resting.”
“Oh my god,” Jenna exhaled, and Deacon could see the visible relief in her. She cared about his daughter.Reallycared.
That meant something to him. It meant a lot. More than he wanted to think about right at the moment.
She reached out and touched Tabby’s foot, as if she just needed to feel for herself that she was okay, then looked up at Deacon, and he saw she had tears in her eyes. “Sorry, that just… it scared me. So um, what is it? What’s wrong?”
He lowered back down onto the seat, suddenly feeling all of his energy just leave his body. Jenna followed his lead, taking the seat that Poppy had just occupied. She brushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear and crossed her leg as she waited to hear what he had to say.
“Is Blake okay?” he asked. He hated that she blamed herself.
Jenna grinned in reassurance. “She’ll be fine. It just shook her up. She’s a very…emotionalgirl. Thank you, by the way, for how you handled that. You were very kind.”
“No, I wasn’t. Thankyou. Both of you. There’s no one else I’d have wanted Tabby to be with today, you don’t know what it meant to me that she was with you, with both of you. It was the only thing that kept me from going insane, or more insane than I did.”
He saw that his words affected Jenna. Her eyes began to water again, but she sniffed back the emotion. “It’s the least we could have done, and she was amazing. Such a trooper. So brave. So easily distracted. She could not have been a bigger angel, honestly, she is such a doll.”
