"You're thinking about him, aren't you?" Serena asked Cassandra as they sat together at the dinner table. "You should have gone with him."
"I couldn't do that, Mother," Cassie said with a sigh. "It's none of my business."
Serena shrugged. "It's your choice."
"What I don't understand is, why wasn't the right name in the file? Is there any chance you could have been wrong?" Cassie asked.
"I was not wrong about this. You know that, Cassandra."
"I thought I did," she said doubtfully. "I just don't understand it."
"Don't worry yourself about that. Reese's parentage is not what you should be concerned about," Serena said. She looked up as she heard the front door open.
"Hi, is anybody home?" Zara called out as she walked into the house. She found Cassandra and Serena eating dinner in the dining room. "Oh, hey, there you are. Are you ready to go?"
"Where are you going?" Serena asked.
"To see Vanessa's play. Cassie and I had plans," she glanced over at her sister, who had obviously forgotten. "Do you want to come with us, Mom?"
"Thank you, but no," Serena said, rising to clear the table. "I'd rather stay in."
Cassie glanced from Zara to Serena and then shook her head. "I think I'm going to stay home too. I'm not really in the mood to go out."
"Is everything alright?" she asked, studying her sister critically. It wasn't like Cassie to turn down an invitation to go out, unless something was really bothering her.
"Yeah. Everything's fine."
"Then come with me," Zara insisted. "I don't want to go all by myself." She quickly glanced into the kitchen where their mother was washing up. "Besides I think getting out of the house for awhile will do you some good."
"This is the address," Blaine said as he parked in the driveway of a small single story house. "Are you sure you want me to go in with you? I understand if you want to do this on your own."
"No," Reese said, turning towards Blaine, her eyes wide with panic. "I do want you to be there with me. I don't think I could do this on my own... Actually, I'm not sure I can do this at all."
"Of course you can. I know you can."
She smiled weakly, appreciative of his support. Her smile quickly faded as she looked up at the house. "I don't know what I'm going to say."
"The words will come to you . . . and even if they don't, I'm here for you."
"I know. I wouldn't be here now if you hadn't been."
They sat in the car for another moment, in silence, as Reese tried to gather up her courage and collect her thoughts.
"You know, you don't have to do this if you're not ready. If meeting face to face is too much, you could call or send a letter first."
Reese shook her head. "No. We're finally here, I can't get this close and not go in. This is what I've always wanted, to meet my parents face to face. I just can't believe it's finally happening."
Reese took a deep breath, before unbuckling her seat belt and opening the car door.
As they walked up to the house, the front door opened and a dark skinned, blonde woman stepped outside to greet them. "Hello."
"Hi," Blaine replied. When Reese didn't speak up right away he continued, "We're looking for someone named Hudson, either Elyse or Philip."
"I'm Elyse Hudson. Philip is my husband. What can I help you with?"
Blaine and Reese glanced at each other, confused. The woman in front of them didn't resemble Reese at all.
"You're Elyse Hudson?" Reese asked.
"Yes," Elyse said. She looked at Reese more closely and let out a gasp. "Oh! Please come in."
No comments:
Post a Comment