by N L Hinkens
18
SIX MONTHS LATER
“So, here we are again,” Jo said, looking across at Liam. “Relegated to the waiting room to cheer Mia on as she gives birth. Only this time I don't want to be here.”
“I absolutely want you both there,” Mia had simpered to Jo just last week. “It wouldn’t feel right without you. You’ve been my supporters since I first told you I was pregnant with Claire—my annoying little problem.” She gave a caustic laugh. “I want you to share my happiness this time. After all, you know what it’s like to love my baby.”
My baby. The words sent a chill through Jo despite the heat of the hospital. Surely, she hadn’t imagined the creepy undertone in Mia’s voice. The more time she spent with the girl, the less she liked the cold vein that ran through her. She was a peculiar person, flinging barbed compliments around with a macabre delight that was disconcerting. Jo’s instincts and her training told her something wasn’t right about Mia, but she couldn’t put her finger on what it was.
“I’m really happy for Robbie,” Liam said, glancing up from his phone. “The past two years have gone from being his worst to his best. There’s nothing quite like having a child to renew your hope.”
Jo smiled across at him. He was an amazing dad, not that she'd ever doubted he would be. This had been a really special time for them with Claire, and they’d grown closer as a couple because of her. She didn’t want to allow Robbie’s and Mia’s relationship to drive a wedge between them. They’d settled into a routine of socializing with them once a week, or, if Jo could find an excuse to stretch it, closer to once every two weeks. She was trying to mix more with the other teachers and avoid too much interaction with Robbie now that she was back at school, but she wasn’t always successful. Inevitably, he would corner her in the staff break room at some point and the conversation would turn to Mia and the baby.
Jo looked up, startled when a nurse appeared in the doorway, a broad smile on her face. “The baby’s here! Come on through!”
Jo and Liam got to their feet and followed the nurse along the corridor to Mia’s room where she was propped up against a mountain of pillows, her blonde hair flowing like a golden waterfall over a backdrop of crisp linens. Robbie sat on a stool next to the bed leaning over the tiny bundle in her arms. Jo grimaced. The perfect pose for the evil queen and her subjects. She sucked in an icy breath, shocked at the hideousness of her own thoughts.
“Congratulations, you two!” Liam said, setting the enormous bundle of balloons he and Jo had brought on the bedside table.
“Yes, congratulations,” Jo added, the words dry as sawdust as they fell from her lips, sorely lacking the cheery ring Liam had nailed.
Nobody seemed to notice. All eyes were glued to the brand-new life in the room.
“It’s a girl,” Robbie choked out, his face glowing with pride.
“Isn’t that wonderful?” Mia gushed. “I’ll be able to use all Claire’s hand-me-downs.”
Jo tried to mold her lips into a smile. Was Mia insinuating that Claire would be their only child? While the fertility goddess herself continued to make babies with her best friend’s husband. Jo sensed the heat rising in her cheeks even as she inwardly reprimanded herself for her pettiness. She had to stop letting her bitterness fester. It was accomplishing nothing other than marring her relationship with Robbie and his new wife—and yes, Mia was his wife and she’d just given birth to his child. A fact she needed to accept. Determined to pull herself together, Jo pulled out her phone and broadened her smile. “I need a picture to show Claire. I’m sure they’re going to be best friends. Snuggle up!”
Robbie and Mia beamed at her, pulling their heads together above their newborn daughter. Jo snapped a few shots and then moved in to take a close-up of the baby’s face. “What’s her name, or are you still wrestling over it?”
Robbie and Mia exchanged a quick look. “Her name is Olivia Sara Gleeson,” Mia announced in a fawning tone. “We wanted to do something to honor Sarah without making it too obvious to those who don’t approve of our relationship. So, this was our compromise. Give her Sara as her middle name and change up the spelling—we’re dropping the “h” on the end.”
“It’s … beautiful,” Jo heard herself respond, her heart pounding erratically in her chest. It didn’t feel like the name was honoring Sarah, it felt more like it was mocking her—as if Robbie had found a version 2.0.
They took turns holding Olivia, and despite her animosity toward Mia, Jo couldn’t help but be moved by the sweet newborn smell of Olivia’s skin and the soft blonde fuzz on her tiny head. It brought back with heart-wrenching clarity those precious early days with Claire and stirred up Jo’s longing to have another child.
On the drive home through town, she was subdued, watching out the passenger window as they whizzed by buildings and people.
“You okay, honey?” Liam shot her a sideways glance. “Are you feeling nostalgic for those early newborn days? It got to me too. Claire’s so big in comparison, and already trying to walk. But think of the nonstop diaper changes and the sleepless nights. We should be grateful for where we’re at. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I wouldn’t do it all again.”
“Actually, I’m thinking about what Robbie and Mia named the baby,” Jo said quietly. “I kind of resent that they used a variation of Sarah’s name, but at the same time I’m asking myself if I would resent it more if they’d ignored her entirely.” She let out a long sigh. “I don’t know if it’s me being overly sensitive or if Mia enjoys causing me pain. Like practically asking me for Claire’s hand-me-downs, assuming I’ll never need them again.”
Liam raised his brows. “I doubt she meant it that way. You’re reading too much into everything. Mia’s young and she blurts out a lot of stuff without thinking it through. I can’t imagine she’s deliberately trying to be insensitive.”
“I’m not so sure. I think she knows exactly what she’s doing, and it creeps me out, like that sly grin she gives after saying something to needle me. It’s almost as though she enjoys reminding me that I owe her.” Jo sighed. “I miss Sarah so much.”
“Let it go. You need to accept the fact that Sarah’s gone, and Robbie’s moved on. He has a family now and he deserves to be as happy as we are.”
They pulled into their driveway and Jo was instantly distracted from her somber thoughts when the babysitter came to the door with Claire on her hip. Her blue eyes lit up, her little hands reaching out for Jo. “Mama! Mama!”
Jo took her and snuggled her close while Liam fished out some cash for Bethany, their fifteen-year-old next-door neighbor, who was almost as besotted with Claire as they were. “How was she?” Jo asked.
“An angel as always,” Bethany raved. “Did Mia have her baby?”
“Yes, a little girl,” Liam answered.
“Oh, how precious! What’s her name?”
Liam shot Jo a quick look. “Olivia.”
“Pretty! Tell them congrats from me, and if they ever need a sitter, I’m up for it.” Bethany waved good-bye and disappeared through the side gate to her house.
Once Claire was down for the night, Jo and Liam snuggled together on the couch in front of a football game Liam had set to record. Jo pulled out her phone and clicked distractedly through her apps. She opened up the photos she’d taken at the hospital and examined them. Robbie looked thrilled and proud, chest thrust out with a protective arm around his family. Mia wore a self-satisfied smirk on her full lips. Olivia looked flawless, a china doll, just like Claire when she was born. On a whim, Jo opened up her album of Claire’s first days and scrolled through to a picture of her cherub face, curious eyes staring into the camera. She was so like Olivia it was uncanny.
Excusing herself to go to the bathroom, Jo exited the room and made her way down the hall to the office. She powered up her computer and downloaded the pictures from her phone, then pulled up the photo of Olivia and one of Claire when she was only a few hours old. She enlarged them side-by-side on the comput
er screen and studied them. A foreboding feeling crept through her like a ghostly vapor. The pictures could easily be mistaken for the same baby. Jo pressed her fingertips to her temples as she contemplated them. But why wouldn’t they look alike? They were half-sisters after all.
Jo was still sitting in front of the screen when Liam walked into the room. “There you are. What are you doing?”
“Nothing much,” Jo said, trying in vain to minimize the photos before he could see them.
“Are those Claire’s baby pictures?” He put an arm around Jo’s shoulders. “I knew holding a newborn would put you in the mood again. She was such a beautiful baby.”
“This isn’t Claire.” Jo pointed at the picture to the right of the screen. “It’s Olivia. The one on the left is Claire. They look almost identical, don’t they?”
Liam leaned in and studied the photos. “Well, they are half-sisters.” He straightened up and laughed. “All babies look the same to me when they’re born, wrinkled and red.” He stretched his arms above his head and yawned. “Ready for bed?”
“I’ll be up in a few minutes,” Jo replied. “Just need to finish up something for school.”
After Liam’s footsteps faded up the stairs, Jo opened up her browser and typed in can half-sisters look like twins? She scrolled through the articles finding nothing remarkable other than that half siblings with the same mother shared slightly more genetic information than half siblings with the same father. Somewhat reassured, she closed up her computer and went to bed.
Sleep eluded her however, and she wrestled with unsettling thoughts. She tossed and turned, spooling the bedclothes around her, a wild conjecture brewing in her head. It was probably stupid, but Jo knew herself well enough to realize that she wouldn’t be able to rest until she could be certain.
Was it possible Robbie was Claire’s father?
19
A few weeks after Olivia’s birth, Jo, Liam, and Claire arrived at Robbie’s and Mia’s house for dinner. In fact, they arrived with the dinner. Remembering those early days of upheaval as they’d adjusted to being new parents, Jo had offered to pick up a Chinese take away. They also brought along a couple of bottles of red wine. It was another one of those ridiculous things that made their friendship seem out of place at times, but Mia was still too young to drink when they went out. At home however, she participated freely, a little too freely for Jo’s liking, but so far, she’d managed to keep that thought to herself. Mia had opted not to nurse Olivia, and Jo had a sneaking suspicion it had more to do with her drinking than anything else. It appeared to run in the family—Mia’s father had consumed his fair share at her wedding reception.
Jo’s palms were sweating as she exchanged pleasantries with Mia while watching Claire toddle back and forth across the floor carrying one stuffed toy after another from the basket in the corner over to Jo and jabbing it in the eye before promptly dropping it at her feet and waddling off to pick out another one. Jo wasn’t concentrating on a word Mia was saying. She was pretending to be distracted by Claire, making sure she didn’t trip and hurt herself. In reality, she was thinking about the Ziploc bags and the plastic disposable gloves she’d stashed in her purse before she left the house. She’d resolved to do it tonight. She assured herself she wasn’t betraying anybody. She didn’t have to disclose her findings to anyone and she certainly had no intention of doing so if her worst fears were realized. She wasn’t about to make known publicly anything that might threaten her and Liam’s legal claim to Claire. But, for her own sanity, she had to know for sure if she was Robbie’s child or not. She’d told herself repeatedly since comparing the photographs that it was highly unlikely—a flawed theory that made no sense. Robbie and Mia weren’t together at the time Claire was conceived. Not while Sarah and Noah were carrying on. It was preposterous to think all four of them had been engaged in some kind of seedy partner-swapping. But, after studying more recent pictures of the two girls, Jo had decided she simply had to put the matter to rest once and for all, and armed herself with the supplies she’d need to retrieve some of Robbie’s DNA.
Over dinner, she observed with revulsion that Mia was drinking more than ever. She strongly suspected she hadn’t abstained during her pregnancy with Olivia, as she’d claimed. The more Jo got to know Mia, the less she trusted what lurked beneath that beautiful face.
“Who would have thought babies could be so expensive?” Mia moaned, holding her glass aloft with her slim fingers, her diamond glittering under the dining room light. She directed a wide-eyed gaze at Robbie. “I mean, I still have to look pretty, too, don’t I? Nails, hair—all that good stuff. It costs money to keep a girl looking hot.”
A flicker of irritation crossed Robbie’s face. “We do all right. Nobody’s going hungry in this house.” He stretched a smile across his face for Liam’s and Jo’s benefit.
“I’m certainly not skipping any meals.” Liam patted his stomach. “Claire likes to feed me her snacks and then stand back and laugh when I groan and rub my belly.”
Everyone laughed, but the tension in the room didn’t dissipate entirely. Jo knew that, along with her drinking, Mia’s spending habits must be giving Robbie cause for concern.
When Robbie and Liam got up to clear away the dishes, and Mia retired to the couch to give Olivia her bottle, Jo excused herself to go to the bathroom. She made a point of bringing Claire with her. An errant toddler would be her excuse if she was caught in Mia’s and Robbie’s bathroom. She padded up the stairs, balancing Claire on her hip, and opened and closed the guest bathroom door before quietly tiptoeing into Mia’s and Robbie’s bedroom and through to the adjoining master bathroom. Heart thundering in her chest, she set Claire down and pushed the door closed behind them. She quickly donned the plastic gloves from her purse and then opened one of the vanity mirrors above the sinks. She reached for the prescription bottles and read the labels. Zofran and Lorazepam, both prescribed to Mia. She pulled out her phone and took a quick picture of the labels to look them up later on, and then put them back on the shelf and peered behind the second vanity mirror; Vaseline, Chapstick, Q-tips, not what she was after.
Next, she slid open the top drawer on the vanity. It was overflowing with expensive brand name cosmetics. Mia was going to run Robbie into the ground if he wasn’t careful, even with Barb’s annual allowance. Jo opened and shut another couple of drawers until she finally found what she was looking for—Robbie’s toiletries, complete with a hairbrush. Gingerly, she extracted several hairs from the brush and deposited them in a Ziploc bag. She wasn’t sure she’d got any with the root like the kit had stipulated, so she grabbed Robbie’s toothbrush and dropped it into another bag before sealing it shut along the seam. Hopefully between the two, they would have enough to work with. With any luck he’d think Mia had tossed the toothbrush out. She stuffed everything back into her purse and snatched up a bewildered Claire who’d been following her lead opening and closing drawers while gabbling unintelligibly about the contents. After listening to make sure no one was coming, Jo hurried back through the master bedroom and down the stairs.
Liam, Robbie and Mia were all sitting around the table laughing about something as Robbie dished out scoops of ice cream. Olivia was nodding off in her bouncer in the corner of the room.
Robbie glanced up as Jo approached. “What flavor are you having, Jo? On offer tonight, we have chocolate mud pie or chocolate chip. My apologies for the heavy-on-the-chocolate theme. My wife doesn’t consider it ice cream if it doesn’t have chocolate in it.” He winked at her and chuckled.
Jo stiffened, imagining in that moment that he looked like Claire, the way her mouth curled up and her dimples appeared when something struck her as funny. She shook the thought free even as she clutched her daughter tighter. Maybe she was losing her grip on reality. “In that case, I’ll have something with chocolate in it, please,” she responded, tagging on a smile.
The others laughed approvingly at the banter as she rejoined them at the table.
Claire’s face lit up when Liam leaned over and spooned a sliver of ice cream between her lips. She let out a delighted ooh! and everyone dissolved into laughter again, the wine having eased any lingering tension between them.
Jo picked up her spoon, feeling like a heel for sitting at Robbie’s table after surreptitiously slipping several of his hairs and his toothbrush into her purse. Was she a rotten friend for harboring despicable suspicions about Robbie? He’d always been such a good-hearted sort—too naive for his own good perhaps. But maybe it was all an act and he was more devious than she’d imagined. She could still throw the bag away and forget all about it, not risk undermining their relationship. She probably should throw it away—Liam would tell her to. She took another sip of her wine hoping to dull her conscience. She would sleep on it. If she still felt guilty about it in the morning, she would get rid of the evidence. But, if the guilt had dissipated, she would send the samples off for analysis and settle the issue of Claire’s paternity before it drove her mad.
When they arrived home at the end of the night, Jo asked Liam to put Claire to bed. As soon as he disappeared upstairs, she carefully placed the Ziplocs from her purse into the envelope from the DNA testing website, along with the requisite paperwork and Claire’s sample. She hid the envelope at the bottom of her purse and then pulled up the pictures of the medication from Mia’s vanity to research them on her phone. The first one, Zofran, was fairly innocuous—an anti-nausea drug often prescribed during pregnancy, also used to treat nausea and vomiting in cancer patients after chemotherapy. Next, she typed in Lorazepam, and scanned through the description. An anti-anxiety medication that acted on the brain and central nervous system to produce a calming effect. Jo furrowed her brow. It sounded familiar for some reason. What did Mia have to be anxious about? Her drinking? Or was the drinking just another way to ease her anxiety about something else?
