The One I Trust (10 page)

“You knew her name?”

“Yeah. It was in with some stuff my mom had.”

“But you told me you didn’t know their names!” she cried.

“Okay, well, I lied,” I said. “I’m sorry.” I pointed at the computer screen. “Can we focus on this right now?”

She looked at me for a moment before relenting with a nod.

“So, her name was Charlotte White,” I said. “But when I searched for that there were way too many results. So then I added ‘adoption’ and I got a bunch of things about adopting pets. So then I added ‘Cavendish’ and that narrowed it right down, but I still didn’t think it was right because it was talking about how
she
had adopted, but then I saw the picture . . .”

“She adopted?”

“Yeah,” I said, unable to hide the disdain in my voice. “Three boys. Can you believe that?”

“Well, why—”

“And get this,” I interrupted. “She does a whole bunch of
volunteer
work for some adoption agency, too.”

“Why is that so bad?” Emily asked cautiously. “And why is it bad that she adopted?”

“She has a kid and puts it up for adoption and then she adopts different kids?”

“So?”

“Look at this,” I said.

I clicked on another tab and let Emily read for herself.

Charlotte White-Clemmons and her husband, Jordan, always knew they were going to adopt. “His brother had Huntington’s,” White-Clemmons explained.

Huntington’s disease is a neurodegenerative genetic disorder that affects muscle coordination and leads to mental decline, behavioral symptoms, and eventually death. Caused by a dominant gene inherited from only one parent, Huntington’s disease is often not diagnosed until middle age, when the lethal gene has already been passed on to another generation.

“We didn’t want to take a chance on having a child who would suffer the way Chase did,” White-Clemmons explained. “And since there are so many kids who need a good home, adoption seemed like a win-win situation.”

Now an advocate for overseas adoption and adoption of children with special needs . . .

I waited until she’d had enough time to read the important parts. She turned and looked at me.

“
That’s
why they put me up for adoption,” I said, looking her straight in the eye. “They were afraid I was going to get this disease so they got rid of me. Or maybe they
knew
I had it . . . maybe they had me tested after I was born and found out that I
do
have it.”

“Reid,” she said. “It’s on
his
side of the family. Just because she’s married to him doesn’t mean that he’s your father.”

“He is though,” I said. “This woman’s all over the Internet. She posts pictures and stuff all the time. Look at what else I found.”

I hit a third tab where Charlotte had posted a picture of her and Jordan when they were much younger. They had their arms around one another and were posing with a dog that appeared to have purple dye in its fur.

“Look at the date,” I told Emily.

She looked, and then she sat back without saying anything.

“She was pregnant with me then,” I said quietly.

Emily nodded, looking down at her lap.

“I’m sorry,” she said after a minute. “I’m sorry I brought all this up.”

“I’m not,” I said.

She lifted her head and looked at me questioningly.

“If I have this disease,” I explained, “then I need to know. I need to find out. What if I didn’t know I had it and I had more kids?”

She didn’t say anything.

“What if Noah had it?” I asked, looking away. “Maybe he did. Maybe it was actually a blessing that . . .”

I couldn’t finish my thought.

I looked back at Emily. She appeared to be completely distraught.

“Reid . . .”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to get you all upset. You need to get to sleep.”

“Oh, yeah,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Like I’m going to be able to sleep now.”

I closed the computer and set it down on the coffee table. I moved closer to Emily and put my hands on her waist.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I shouldn’t have come over here.”

“I’m glad you did.”

“You go back to bed and go to sleep,” I said, leaning in and kissing her. “Everything’s fine.”

She looked at me uncertainly.

“It is,” I said. “I’m fine. I’m going to get tested and I’m going to figure out what’s going on and no matter what I find out, it’s going to be fine.”

I took her hand and stood, pulling her up beside me and leading her out from behind the coffee table.

“I’m going to go,” I said, giving her a hug. “You get some sleep.”

I gave her a quick kiss and headed for the door.

“Here,” she said. “You forgot your computer.”

She picked it up from the coffee table and turned around to hand it to me.

“Thanks,” I said, smiling as I took it. “Hale might be a little upset if this was locked up in your apartment for over a week.”

“I’m going to miss you,” she said.

“I’m going to miss you, too,” I answered, giving her another kiss, this time not so quick. “Now go to bed.”

I WAS NOT afraid to die. Noah had died—if he could do it, I could do it. He was waiting for me. I was totally not afraid to die. But I figured I should know. If I had a disease that was going to kill me, I should
know
. . . especially if it was something I could pass on to my own kids one day.

And so I made an appointment with my doctor to be tested for Huntington’s disease.

“Results should be back next week,” he told me. “I’ll give you a call.”

I nodded, went home, and didn’t tell Anneka or Hale about any of it.

EIGHT DAYS LATER, the sun was shining brightly as I pulled Hale’s car into a parking space in front of Emily’s apartment building. I spotted Denise’s car in a nearby space so I texted Emily:

Come out here.

I got out of the car and leaned against it while I waited for Emily to appear. When she did, she walked briskly to me and wrapped her arms around me.

“I missed you,” she said.

“I missed you, too,” I replied, and I kissed her to show her just how much.

“The doctor’s office called me on my way over here,” I told her after our lips had parted.

She looked up at me and the smile on my face.

“And?”

“And I’m fine. Totally fine.”

“Oh, Reid!” she cried, wrapping me up in another hug. As we held each other tight I realized that—based on how happy I was—I maybe hadn’t been quite as ready to die as I’d originally thought.

“I know you’re tired,” I told her, “but I really want to celebrate. Any chance I can talk you into going out?”

“Absolutely,” she said. She pulled back slightly, nodding, and looked up at me with a smile.

“Good.” I smiled back. “Let’s go.”

We went to a barbeque place in Garner and the hostess seated us in a booth. I had just started looking over the menu when suddenly I heard Emily saying quietly, “Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no . . .”

I looked up at her, saw that her eyes were on something behind me, and turned around to see what she was looking at.

Actually
who
she was looking at.

A young man and woman were walking toward us. The man was carrying their bill and they were obviously on the way to the cash register, but they were going to have to go by our booth to get there. When the young man spotted Emily, his stride faltered for a brief moment, but then he quickly put a smile on his face and approached our table.

“Emily!” he said, his fake smile growing. The young woman caught up with him and stood next to him, clutching his arm.

“Hi, Ethan.” Emily nodded and I noticed that the color had completely drained from her face. She looked at the young woman and nodded again. “Brianna.”

Brianna nodded back.

I stood up. Doing my best to exude confidence, I stuck my hand out and shook Ethan’s. I was glad to find that I towered over him.

“Ethan,” I said. “Nice to meet you. My name’s Reid. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

I gripped his hand probably a lot stronger than I needed to.

He didn’t seem to know what to say to this but nodded and agreed that it was nice to meet me, too. I turned to Brianna.

“I’ve heard a lot about you, too,” I said, shaking her hand as well.

She nodded and tried to smile.

I stayed standing, tall and straight, shoulders back and chin high. I looked down on both of them.

“Well,” Ethan said, looking at Emily again. “It’s, uhh, nice to see you.”

“You, too.”

They turned to head for the register and I didn’t sit down until they were a few yards away. Then I took my seat and looked at Emily.

“They deserve each other,” I said.

“What do you mean?” she asked, looking back at me, obviously still rather unsettled.

“Well, first of all,” I said. “He’s an absolute idiot if he cheated on
you
with
her
.”

I gave a little shudder of disgust at the thought and Emily smiled appreciatively.

“And second of all,” I went on, “she’s slimy. Completely untrustworthy. She’ll do whatever she thinks she can get away with to get what she wants.”

“How do you know?” Emily asked.

“I was a detective,” I reminded her. “I know how to profile people.”

“Really?”

“Oh, yeah.” I nodded.

“How could you tell all that?” Emily asked, leaning toward me, her eyes bright with interest.

I laughed.

“She slept with her best friend’s fiancé,” I said.

Emily looked disappointed.

“You can’t really profile people?”

“I can to some extent,” I said, smiling. “But not just by meeting someone for two seconds like that. You’ve got to talk with them for a while. Ask ’em questions and stuff. But I stand by what I said. She’s slimy. And you’re a million times prettier than she is.”

She glanced at the cash register where Ethan and Brianna were next in line, talking as they waited to pay their bill.

“I think you kind of freaked him out when you stood up,” Emily said, looking back at me. “You looked kind of . . .”

“Buff?” I suggested, and she giggled. “I was channeling my inner cop,” I admitted. “You’ve got to know how to act like you’re in charge even if you’re scared to death.”

“You were scared?”

“Of him?” I scoffed. “Not hardly. But I knew you were upset and I . . . I didn’t want you to be.”

She gave me an appreciative smile.

“And he really is an idiot,” I said. I reached across the table and took her hand and Emily dropped her eyes.

“Is this okay?” I asked, suddenly worried that she might not want Ethan to see us holding hands.

“Oh, yeah,” she said, looking back up. “I’m very glad you’re here with me.”

I smiled and she squeezed my hand.

“As a matter of fact,” she said with a sparkle in her eye, “you could kiss me right now, you know . . . if you wanted to,” and I leaned over the table and gave her a long, slow kiss, hoping to show Ethan exactly how stupid he was.

“Do you think they saw?” Emily asked when I sat back.

I looked toward the cash register.

“Oh, yeah,” I said, nodding. “They saw.”

She smiled and gave my hand another squeeze.

Our waitress came along with our drinks and some hush puppies. By the time she wrote down our order and left with our menus, Ethan and Brianna were gone.

“So Brianna’s from around here?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“I guess I always thought she was a friend from Pennsylvania.”

Emily shook her head. “No.”

“How did you meet her?”

“She was my roommate my freshman year.”

I nodded and my mind immediately went to how Hale had been my roommate during my freshman year and how that situation had turned out so very differently.

“Can we change the subject?” Emily asked.

“Sure,” I said, reaching for a container of butter spread. “Why don’t we talk about how my parents got rid of a perfectly good baby for absolutely no reason.”

“You don’t
know
that that’s why they got rid of you,” she said for the hundredth time.

“I’m going up there,” I said, ignoring her for the hundredth time.

“Up where?”

“Chicago,” I said. “That’s where they live.”

“You’re going to Chicago?”

“Yep.”

“Did you call them?”

“No, I didn’t
call
them! They got rid of me,” I reminded her, peeling the lid from the spread container. “They don’t want anything to do with me!”

“That’s not true,” she argued. “One of them is looking for you on that site!”

“It’s probably not even the same person . . .”

“If you’d register and send them a message then you’d
know
if it was the same person.”

“If I register and send them a message,” I said, “then they’re going to think I’m looking for them.”

“If you’re not looking for them,” she said, “why are you going to Chicago?”

“I’m not sure,” I admitted.

“What are you going to do exactly?” she asked. “Are you going to fly up there and knock on their door or something?”

“I’m not sure,” I repeated.

“You don’t have a plan?

“No,” I said, picking up a hush puppy and dipping it into the spread. “I just know that I get my first paycheck in three weeks and I know exactly what I’m going to spend it on.”

The next day Hale and Anneka and I helped Emily move. Denise was around all day, watching us as we made trip after trip. She seemed more sulky than normal and barely said one word as she sat on the couch and watched us all work. She certainly didn’t offer to lift a finger to help.

“What is
up
with that chick?” Anneka asked, nodding her head toward the apartment when all four of us found ourselves together in the parking lot at one point. “She’s so freakin’ weird!”

“No she’s not,” Emily said, shaking her head. “She’s just sort of socially challenged, you know?”

“Emily and I were talking about profiling people yesterday,” I told Anneka. Then I pointed toward the apartment. “
That’s
someone who needs to be profiled.”

Emily swatted me, and everybody laughed, but I honestly was more than a little pleased that Emily wasn’t going to be living with Denise anymore.