His eyes narrowed slightly before he returned his attention to his call and exited the room. The door shut and I turned to Peyton.
She looked…tired. There were dark circles beneath her eyes and there was a hollow in her usually round cheeks. It was clear to me that she hadn’t been eating or sleeping, and I realized I was most likely the reason.
Yesterday, I’d been playing Sherlock Holmes and then I’d gone to see Lina. I’d almost called her when I got home from our daughter’s apartment last night, but this wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have over the phone.
And I didn’t want to tell her this morning when I knew she had to work today. So I’d waited, but I could see now that my silence had affected her.
“Sorry about that. He just…showed up. I didn’t know he was coming.” She took a step forward. “How are you? You know after everything.”
“Everything is actually why I’m here.”
Her shoulders dropped as she stood a little taller, just slightly, but I noticed it. I could see she was bracing herself in case I came here because I was angry or upset. I wasn’t.
“I found her.”
She stared blankly at me and blinked. “What?”
“I found our daughter.”
Her mouth opened but no words came out. The only sound in the air was that of her labored breathing. All the color had drained from her face. Her chest rose and fell in shallow pants before she asked, “What? How?”
“Do you want to sit down?”
“No, how did you find her?” she demanded.
“She actually found me.”
Her eyes widened further, and her already pale skin grew paler. She was white as a sheet. “What?!”
“Please sit down.” I was scared she was going to pass out.
I took a step forward but stopped when she put up her hands in a defensive stance. “No! What are you talking about? Shefoundyou?”
Since she wasn’t going to take my advice and sit, I figured the best thing to do was get to the point as quickly as possible. “Something was bothering me, or not bothering me, but I just couldn’t put my finger on something after I left your house. I went home and started all the regular avenues of searching for someone. I requested records from hospitals and the Standesamt, um the registrar offices.” I clarified. “I hired a private investigator. And while I waited for the records or to hear something back, I couldn’t shake this niggling feeling I had. I was sitting at my desk and I noticed a picture on my desk of Hannah, and it had her birthday written on the back of the incubator she was in. Then it clicked what was bothering me. I’d seen the exact date you said that you gave birth recently.
“We just had a new batch of interns and one of them just turned twenty on November eleventh. So, I pulled up her file. Whenever we hire anyone, we have extensive background checks done on them to protect the company and our clients.” I explained. “Lina was the right age, same birthday, she was born in Germany and adopted six weeks later.”
“Lina?” Peyton repeated quietly.
“Angelina Chaplin.” I nodded. “I don’t know how to explain it, but I justknewthat it was her. Still, I needed proof. So I hacked her email.”
“You didwhat?!”
“I’m not proud of it, but like I said, I needed proof. And I found it. When Hannah was born, I had a genetic workup done to get a clearer picture of my medical history. My DNA was stored in the 23andMe database but not public. But Lina’s really good and she hacked the database to see if there were any familial matches and found me. Once she did, she applied for an internship and was hired last week. She started on Monday, the day I found out that I had a daughter.”
The coincidence was still colossally mind blowing.
Peyton staggered back and finally sat down.
“When did you figure this all out?”
“Yesterday.”
“Yesterday? Why didn’t you call me? Why are you waiting untiltodayto tell me!?” she sounded angry.
“I wanted to talk to her first.”
“Youtalkedto her?”
