The Dad Next Door by Stephanie Dees

Author:Stephanie Dees
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-05-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Claire tossed another sheaf of papers into the fireplace, the crackling fire making her remodeled kitchen into a cozy haven against the chilly November night. After the workers left for the day, she’d made herself a peanut butter sandwich and a cup of hot chocolate and changed into her yoga pants so she could get to work on a project she’d been purposely avoiding.

Tomorrow a nice soft sage green was going on the walls of the second-floor office. She’d been dreading going through her father’s papers, but the painters had to be able to actually get in the room in order to paint it. She couldn’t put it off anymore. So she’d put on some music on her iPod and resolved to just get through it.

She’d gone through two stacks of boxes already, hauling them into the kitchen and sorting through them. A couple of gems had been tucked away in those filing boxes, like some old maps of the area. Black-and-white photographs of the town were hiding in there, too, and would look great in the long upstairs hall. She flipped through the files, which appeared to be more papers from her father’s time as mayor and an ill-fated run for governor. She pulled those out, throwing them with the others on the fire. When she went back for the next handful, her eye caught on a file that was titled, simply, GIRLS.

Heart pounding in her chest, she pulled out the file and sat down in the huge chair in front of the fireplace, legs crisscrossed underneath her. A manila envelope fell out into her lap. With trembling fingers, she unfastened the closure and opened it, first pulling out a hospital bracelet the width of no more than two of her fingers. It was joined by a tiny cap and a card with Baby Girl 1 written on it, and beside it, in pencil, Claire. She’d weighed seven pounds four ounces and had been twenty inches long.

When she flipped it over, she saw two itty-bitty footprints—her footprints. A tear dropped, quickly seeping into the old card. She’d never seen anything from her birth, never even heard the story until her father’s attorney told them the story about their biological mother’s death from an aneurism when they were newborns. Her father hadn’t felt like he could raise twin girls on his own, but he had wanted to find them as adults.

The attorney said it took two years for a private investigator to track her and Jordan. He’d traced them through the foster-adoption agency, pulling threads until he’d found their mom and ultimately the two of them. They met their father for a few brief hours one weekend, with plans for another visit, but by then their father had passed and their opportunity to hear their story firsthand was lost.

She placed the items gently on the table beside her, adding Jordan’s to the small pile. Next out of the file was a letter-sized envelope that held old photos. In the first one, a woman in a hospital bed held a baby.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.