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Dr. Reed,

The office informed me today that they never received Penny’s shot records from you prior to school starting. If you could send a copy with her to school tomorrow, I’d appreciate it! The office changed to a new computer system, and some paperwork was lost in the process. My apologies for the inconvenience!

Mr. Kenshaw

I sigh. This happened to a few of my students as well. As a private school, shot records aren’t mandatory, but the office prefers to have them on file if the parents don’t have an issue with it.

Drew texted an hour ago letting me know he has a surgery that might run long, so he’ll be home later than usual. I could probably locate Penny’s shot records somewhere around here and make a copy so he doesn’t have to worry about it.

Penny runs into the kitchen where I’m standing. She’s wearing striped rainbow leggings paired with a bright pink princess shirt. It’s sparkly, of course.

“Hey, sweetie, do you know where your daddy might keep important paperwork?”

“Oh yeah! He has a desk in his room and a filing cabinet.” She grabs my hand and drags me in that direction.

I’ve peeked inside Drew’s room before. Curiosity got the better of me one day when the girls were occupied. I was too busy admiring the way his room smelled and how comfortable his big, king-sized bed looked to notice the desk in the corner next to his dresser. There are five bedrooms upstairs and only three are full, so I have no clue why he doesn’t turn one of them into an office.

“Dad keeps everything here. The key to the filing cabinet is in his nightstand,” Penny explains before running back down the hallway, probably to find Sam.

A key? His nightstand? Okay, this feels like an invasion of his space. I grab my phone out of my pocket and shoot him a text.

Sophie: Hey Mr. Muscles ;-) the school lost Penny’s shot records and wants you to send a copy with her to school tomorrow. I was going to do it for you, but Penny says the key is in your nightstand and I didn’t want to overstep. LMK if that's okay and I’ll take care of it for you!

I head back into the living room and pry Penny away from the TV. I grab her homework folder again and we sit down and get to work on it.

An hour later, we’re finished with homework, and I start dinner. I check my phone. Nothing from Drew. He’s probably still in surgery.

I keep dinner simple as usual. We’re having spaghetti and steamed broccoli. Drew likes to make sure there’s a vegetable with every meal. I definitely eat much healthier since I started watching Penny.

It’s almost seven p.m. by the time we eat and I get the kitchen cleaned up. Checking my phone one more time, I see there’s still no response from Drew. I slide my phone back into my pocket and pad back down the hall to Drew’s room.

I’m being ridiculous. It’s just a filing cabinet. If Penny knows where the key is, he must not be that private about it. I walk over to his nightstand and hesitate for a second before sliding it open. The drawer is mostly empty. There’s only a tube of chapstick, a few granola bars, and a small key.

I smile, making a note to ask him about the granola bars later. I take the key out, close the drawer, and make my way to the filing cabinet. The key slides right in and the wooden filing cabinet opens easily. I thumb through the well-organized folders and find one marked Penny.

Shaking my head, I internally berate myself for not doing this earlier. It’s just one simple thing I can do for him since he’s working late tonight. I pull the file out and flip through the papers inside. Her shot records are easy enough to find and there’s even a printer on his desk. Turning it on, I flip through the shot records to see how many pages I’ll need to copy.

My eyes flick back to the open folder and something strange catches my eye.

I think it’s Penny’s birth certificate, but Emily Reed is listed as her mother. I blink several times and look at it again. I’m holding it close to my face. Drew’s name isn’t even listed here. What on earth? Actually, the area that asks for the father’s name and signature is blank.

I glance down and see more papers in the folder. My body goes still, the blood running through my veins feels like it has turned to ice. This can’t be true.

The other papers in the folder are adoption papers. There has to be a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this. There’s just no way Drew would hide something this big from me. I mean, surely he wouldn’t lie to me, right?

Something about this feels off. My gut is telling me something is wrong here. My head is spinning with questions. Putting the papers carefully back in the folder, I take a deep breath. I take a seat in his office chair and check my phone one last time to see if he’s texted back. He hasn’t. Still in surgery.

We both agreed our relationship wouldn’t affect the girls, and I will stand by that no matter what. I make a copy of the shot records and place the originals back into the folder. Unsure what else to do, I file Penny’s folder back where it was and leave the key on top of the filing cabinet.

I inhale one last deep breath to calm myself and walk back out to the main area of the house. The girls are in Penny’s room playing with her dollhouse, so I put the shot records in Penny’s backpack and zip it up.

My phone pings with a text message, and I take it out to read it.

Drew: Hey gorgeous, don’t worry about the shot records. I’ll do it. On my way home now!

I swallow the lump that has been lodged in my throat ever since my eyes landed on Penny’s birth certificate.

Walking down the hallway, I tell Penny to get her pajamas on and brush her teeth, then I run downstairs to grab some jammies for Samantha. The girls giggle and smile as I help them get dressed and ready for bed, and I try to put the birth certificate out of my head.

I’m reading the girls a bedtime story when Drew appears in Penny’s doorway and grins as he looks at all of us cuddled up on her twin sized bed.

“How are my girls?” Drew asks in his warm, husky voice.

He looks so handsome in his black scrubs. I smile back at him, but it feels forced.

“Daddy! I need a bedtime kiss!” Penny jumps up from her bed and runs over to him, hugging him around the legs.

Drew must have noticed my expression because he’s looking at me with concern. I get out of Penny’s bed and Samantha stands up and holds her arms out for me to hold her. Picking her up, I start to walk out of the room.

“Soph, what’s wrong?” he whispers as I walk past him.

It’s difficult to look at him, his eyes are so warm and I’m usually comforted by that warmth. But I feel so confused.

“Nothing, I’m alright. Just tired. Samantha and I are going to head to bed, okay?”

His eyebrows furrow like he’s unconvinced I’m okay. “Get some rest.”

I slide past him into the hallway and carry Samantha downstairs.