Chapter 6 - 5:43The minutes dragged. Four o'clock passed. Then 4:30. My mother stopped talking and began tapping her fingernail against the chair. At five, Owen stirred and fussed before settling again. The afternoon light outside the hospital window slowly turned golden.
At 5:43, I heard the elevator down the hallway. Then footsteps. Then something else. The soft squeak of wheels. A wheelchair.
The door opened. Emmett stood there. His eyes were swollen and red. He looked like he'd been crying for hours. One hand rested on the handle of a wheelchair. Sitting in it was a woman I had never seen before. She looked to be in her sixties. A gray knitted cap covered her head. Her hands trembled in her lap. And she was staring at me with an expression I couldn't understand.
Mom immediately stood.
Emmett looked at me. "Willa. I'm sorry. I know how this looks."
I raised one hand before my mother could speak. "Who is she?"
He brought the wheelchair closer. Then he knelt beside my bed. "This is Marguerite."
I stared at the woman. He swallowed. "Before you decide anything about the birth certificate, please let me explain everything."
May you like
Marguerite lifted her eyes. They were the same color as Emmett's.
I looked at Owen. Then at the blank birth certificate. "Talk."
Related Stories
