Chapter 4 - The Parking LotAbout ten minutes later, my mother rushed into the room carrying yellow tulips. "Willa! Oh my God, look at him!" She kissed my forehead. Then Owen's head. Then me again. Her mascara was already smudged.
"Where's Emmett? I want to congratulate him."
My stomach tightened. "He stepped out."
Mom frowned. "Stepped out where?"
"I don't know."
She stopped smiling. Then her expression changed. "Willa…"
"What?"
"I think I saw him."
My heart started pounding. "Where?"
"In the parking lot." She sat down beside the bed. "I was pulling into a space when I saw a man who looked exactly like Emmett getting into the passenger seat of a car. There was another man driving. He was wearing some kind of uniform. I didn't recognize him."
"What kind of car?"
"I don't know. But there was a sticker on the back window." She hesitated. "I think it said hospice."
"Hospice?"
"I could be wrong."
But I barely heard that part. I was stuck on the fact that Emmett had left the hospital with someone I didn't know. Then I told her the other part.
"He told me not to fill out the birth certificate."
Mom's face hardened. "He what?"
"He said to wait until he came back."
Her mouth tightened into the expression I remembered from childhood. "Willa, listen to me."
"Mom…"
"No. You listen. That man does not get to walk out of this room and dictate what you put on your son's paperwork."
"Please don't."
"You write Owen's name down right now."
"Mom."
"I have lived this story." Her voice cracked. "I know where it ends."
I knew exactly what she meant. My father had abandoned her shortly after I was born. She had signed my paperwork alone. And ever since then, she saw pieces of him in every man who behaved unexpectedly.
May you like
Even Emmett.
Nurse Odalys returned and gently moved the clipboard closer, then left us again. Mom picked up the pen and handed it to me. "Write his name." My fingers shook.
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