The Choice

by Robert Whitlow

  “Hey,” he said.

  “Hi,” Sandy responded.

  Never had such a simple greeting held more meaning. Sandy reached out and touched Dusty’s hand. He had long, strong fingers. He looked over at her and smiled.

  “I liked you the first time I saw you in the snack shop in Atlanta,” Dusty said. “I thought you looked like a nice lady.”

  “And I thought you were a cocky lawyer,” Sandy replied in an attempt to keep from bursting into tears.

  “We were both right,” Dusty said.

  Sandy gently stroked his hand.

  “I’m glad you’re alive,” she said softly.

  “Me too.”

  Dusty turned his palm up and closed his fingers gently over Sandy’s hand.

  “I’ve thought about you a lot since I came out from under the anesthesia,” he said, looking directly into Sandy’s eyes. “I want to thank you for giving me life thirty-three years ago and saving my life four days ago.”

  A tear rolled down Sandy’s cheek.

  “I know what’s happened is going to change me,” Dusty continued. “I’m not sure how, but I want you to be part of who I am from here on.”

  Sandy squeezed Dusty’s hand. Jeremy touched Sandy on the shoulder.

  “Make that three of us,” Jeremy said. “We’re a family.”

  By the time Sandy got out of the hospital, the women’s organization in Atlanta had dismissed the petition against her and dropped the juvenile court action against Maria. Jeremy told Sandy their new lawyer admitted that the threat of negative publicity generated by pursuing a claim against Sandy Lincoln far outweighed any precedential benefit of a court order muzzling a public school teacher.

  Ben and Betsy took Sandy home from the hospital. Nelson ran in circles of excitement when he saw her slowly get out of the car. Sandy’s mother, who was staying an extra week to help out, opened the kitchen door. Ben helped Sandy up the steps.

  “What have you done to my kitchen?” Sandy asked as soon as she entered and saw that some of her things weren’t in their usual places. “I won’t be able to find anything.”

  “I’ll go over everything with you. You’ll see the improvement. It’s easy to get in a rut and miss an opportunity for efficiency.”

  Seven months later, Sandy returned to the hospital. This time she went to the labor and delivery suite. Maria had been able to complete the school year before her pregnancy kept her at home. A late-term ultrasound confirmed that she was going to have a little girl. With Emilio out of the picture, her father’s attitude changed, and he supported Maria’s decision to have her baby and bring her home. Sandy had already started to coordinate child care so the new mother could return to high school the following year and graduate. Jeremy, Dusty, and Ben had pledged financial support.

  Maria’s father nervously camped out in the waiting area while Rosalita and Sandy stayed with Maria. Shortly after suppertime, Maria began to push. Forty minutes later she delivered a six pound, five ounce baby girl. Sandy and Rosalita were on opposite sides of the new mother when the delivery nurse placed the tiny infant in Maria’s arms.

  “You did great,” Sandy said as she looked down at the mother and child. “And she’s beautiful.”

  Maria softly kissed her little girl on the cheek.

  “Tell her,” Rosalita said to Maria.

  Maria took her eyes off her infant for a moment and looked up at Sandy.

  “My mother is dead. Will you be my little girl’s adopted grandmother?”

  “Yes.” Sandy nodded. “That would be an honor.”

  Maria gazed again at her baby.

  “And I’ve already picked out a name for her.”

  “Wonderful. What is it?”

  “I’m going to call her Sandy.”

  A NOTE FROM

  THE AUTHOR

  Thank you so much for taking the time to read The Choice. It’s my desire to write novels that encourage, inspire, and entertain. Before you place this book on a shelf or pass it along to a friend, I want to share a few personal thoughts with you.

  The sacrifice a woman makes to bring a baby into the world (along with the previous nine months!) is incalculable. One of my main goals in writing The Choice was to honor mothers. I’ve never had greater respect for my wife, Kathy, than during the birth of our first child. If you’re a mother, please allow a few drops of praise and appreciation to rain down on you.

  The titles of books and movies often contain a touch of irony. There is intended irony in my selection of The Choice. Within the abortion movement, the word choice is a rallying cry for the right of women to terminate a pregnancy as an acceptable form of birth control. In this novel I want to show that the same word can apply to a woman’s decision not to abort her baby. Sandy is unselfishly “pro-choice.” She chooses not to go to the women’s clinic in Atlanta and prematurely end her pregnancy; she chooses to place the baby boys for adoption because, in the context of the story, it is the best decision for them; she chooses to place her own life in jeopardy to save her sons when she meets them as adults. Sandy’s actions at key points illustrate practical ways to redeem the word choice.

  My ultimate hope is that readers of this story, regardless of age or gender, will be encouraged to make unselfish, sacrificial choices. Laying down our lives for others, in big and small ways, is at the heart of Christian living. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13 NIV). Wouldn’t more of that be a good thing?

  ROBERT WHITLOW

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  My wife, Kathy, profoundly influenced the writing of this book. She is the mother of our four children and an adoptee who found her birth mother. Without her insight I could not have told this story. Special thanks to Allen Arnold, Natalie Hanemann, and Deborah Wiseman for their invaluable advice in crafting the novel and making it better.

  READING GROUP GUIDE

  1. The story opens with the young Sandy and her mother waiting in a doctor’s office for news that will change their lives. Put yourself in their shoes in 1974 small-town Georgia. How would you feel if you were the mother? If you were the pregnant, unwed girl?

  2. Sandy’s journey through the first half of the book is filled with challenges and choices. Have you or someone you know ever dealt with a situation like this? What was the outcome?

  3. The meeting between Sandy’s and Brad’s families doesn’t go very smoothly. How could that situation have been handled differently? If you were involved, what would you advise?

  4. Brad tells Sandy that he loves her and wants to marry her. Do you believe him? Do you think that sometimes women may ignore red flags? What would you tell Sandy in that moment— when Brad tells her “I can’t live without you”?

  5. On her way to Atlanta, Sandy meets a strange woman in the gas station. How would you react to a stranger predicting your future? Would you take it to heart as Sandy does, or would you brush it off as lunacy?

  6. Linda selflessly invites Sandy into her home in Atlanta and supports her through her pregnancy. How does this experience affect Sandy’s future?

  7. Sandy goes home to spend Christmas with her family and attends the Christmas Eve service at their church. She realizes a correlation between her own pregnancy and Mary’s. In what ways are their situations similar? How does this one night change Sandy’s outlook on her pregnancy and her life?

  8. After Sandy gives birth, her mother is persistent to see and hold the twins. She even begs Sandy to take at least one of them home. Would that have been a good choice? If your mother tried to force something on you that you didn’t agree with, how would you handle it?

  9. As a teacher and the cheerleading coach, Sandy plays an important role in the lives of her students. She develops a friendship with Maria and helps her through a difficult time. Do you think there should be laws in place defining the relationships teachers are allowed to have with their students? Discuss the implications.

  10. Do you think it was a co
incidence that the lawyer Sandy visits turns out to be one of her sons? She is overjoyed and unsure what to do with her newfound knowledge. What do you think about her spying on the family and following them to Chloe’s soccer game? Can you imagine doing something like this?

  11. Sandy asks Dustin Abernathy if he was adopted, and he says no. Later we find out that he was adopted but his parents never told him. Do you think children need to know if they were adopted?

  12. Even though Sandy wasn’t fond of Dusty, she sacrifices her own life for him. Would you do that for your child? Would you be able to sacrifice your child for someone else?

  13. In what ways does Sandy’s story relate to the biblical story of Jacob and Esau?

  14. Discuss the choices you see throughout this story that change its course. For example, Sandy chooses to believe the strange woman’s prediction about her sons and acts accordingly. Later, Sandy continues to help Maria even though Sandy could lose her job. Which choice do you consider the most pivotal?

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Robert Whitlow is the best-selling author of legal dramas set in the South and winner of the prestigious Christy Award for Contemporary Fiction. A Furman University graduate, Whitlow received his J.D. with honors from the University of Georgia School of Law where he served on the staff of the Georgia Law Review. A practicing attorney, Whitlow and his wife, Kathy, have four adult children. They make their home in North Carolina.