Firstborn by Robin Lee Hatcher

Author:Robin Lee Hatcher [Hatcher, Robin Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Adoption, Contemporary, Women's fiction
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

This wasn’t the way Kirsten had imagined their first meeting, in a room that smelled of frightened animals, medication, and disinfectant.

No, she’d had something more poignant in mind. For several months and across two thousand four hundred and seventy-two miles, she’d imagined all sorts of scenarios for her first meeting with her birth mother, but never had she pictured this one. Nor had she expected to feel a sudden hope that Erika Welby would come to care about her.

Erika said Kirsten’s name softly, as if testing it on her tongue.

Kirsten nodded. “Yes.”

“I’m Erika.”

“I know.”

An awkward silence filled the waiting room. A heartbeat later, Erika looked away, turning her gaze toward the examination room where they’d taken the injured dog.

“I’m sorry,” Kirsten said for what seemed the hundredth time. “I didn’t see him running into the street. I was looking… I was looking for your house number and then I saw you in the yard and when I realized—” She stopped, certain she was babbling like an idiot.

“His name is Motley.” Erika’s voice lowered. “He belongs to Ethan.”

Ethan?

As if Kirsten had spoken her question aloud, Erika answered it. “He’s my son.”

Her son…

My brother…

Kirsten had wondered, of course. She’d wondered if she had any siblings, but she’d never been able to find that information. Now she knew of at least one. Ethan. Her half brother.

Or is he my full-blooded brother? Is Steven Welby my father?

Kirsten hadn’t the courage to ask. Not yet.

The phone rang. The receptionist answered it. Dogs barked somewhere in the bowels of the building. The wall clock noisily ticked off the seconds as the hand swept around its large, white face.

Kirsten pretended to look elsewhere while studying her birth mother’s profile.

Do I look like her?

She wasn’t sure. For countless years, she’d wished she looked like somebody.

Or do I resemble my father?

Erika Welby had dark blond hair, unlike Kirsten’s ebony locks, but it was just as curly, and if she wasn’t mistaken, Erika had the same stubborn cowlick that plagued Kirsten.

A cowlick and naturally curly hair. Was that enough to make them mother and daughter?

Erika glanced at Kirsten, tears in her pale blue eyes.

It was Kirsten’s turn to look away, afraid.

Afraid that the dog she’d hit with her car wouldn’t survive. Afraid Erika Welby wouldn’t like her. Afraid Ethan Welby would hate her. Afraid she would never meet her father. Afraid of all the unknown twists and turns of her future.

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