My phone started to vibrate.
I pulled it out expecting Justin, but I didn’t recognize the number—and when I didn’t recognize the number, I always answered. “Hold on, I have to take this. Hello?”
“Emma, you will not believe who I found.”
I bolted up straight. “Mom? Where have you been?”
Maddy rolled her eyes before pulling out her phone.
“Boston,” Mom said. “I told you.”
I shook my head. “No. You didn’t. And your phone’s disconnected. I was worried—”
“I gave you the new number weeks ago, remember? I was still on Jeff’s plan and he canceled my line, can you believe that POS? God, J-named men are the worst.”
I put my forehead into my palm, feeling the wave of relief I always got when I finally knew where she was.
“Anyway,” she went on, “guess who I found? You won’t believe it.” She paused for dramatic effect. “Stuffie.”
I lifted my head. “Stuffie?”
“Yeah. That little unicorn doll you used to carry around everywhere? I went to visit Renee. Remember her? We stayed with her for two months back when you were in the fourth grade? She divorced that guy she was married to, the electrician? Finally. I don’t know why she thought a Libra was a good idea—and a Taurus Moon of all things, can you imagine? She’s selling dream catchers on Etsy now, I got you one. Anyway, she still had our boxes in her garage. Opened a few up and there he was, just sitting on top of a bunch of board games.”
Stuffie. I couldn’t even breathe.
There were very few things that I cherished. I wasn’t a sentimental person, at all. But I loved Stuffie. I’d thought he was gone.
“Give me your address and I’ll send him to you,” she said.
“Do you need me to Venmo you for the shipping?” I asked, a little too quickly. But I didn’t want her to put it off because she couldn’t afford to send it. She’d lose him, or damage him, or get distracted and forget.
“No, I got it. Got a job as a cart girl on a golf course, tips are good. So how have you been? Where are you? Tell me everything!”
“I’m in Minnesota. We just got here today, actually.”
“Minnesota…” she said, her voice going a little flat.
For some reason it wasn’t until just this moment that I remembered that this was where Mom had grown up. She didn’t talk about it, hardly ever. She’d left when she was eighteen.
“Where?” she asked.
“Lake Minnetonka.”
“Oh, it’s such a party lake!” she said, bursting back to life. “You’re going to have so much fun! Make someone grill you a walleye. Hold on.” Then she started talking to someone muffled in the background. She came back on and sighed dramatically. “I gotta go. Text me that address. Love you!”
And then she was gone.
I slumped back against my seat and Maddy raised her eyes from her phone and we shared a silent exchange. She was letting me know that Amber exasperated her, and I was letting her know that I was aware.
I sent the address of the mansion to Mom and saved her new number in my phone and set it down on the seat next to me.
Maddy set her phone down too. “So I got you something,” she said.
“You did?”
“Yeah. And I really want you to be open to it. Can you promise me you will?”
I eyed her. “What.”
“Just keep an open mind. Promise me.”
She waited.
“Fine,” I said. “I will keep an open mind. What is it?”
She pulled a box out from under the wicker chair she was in. The second I saw it I shook my head.
“No. I’m not doing a DNA test.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want to mess up someone’s life. My dad doesn’t even know I exist—”
“And don’t you think he has a right to know? Anyone who runs their DNA through these things knows they might get surprises. So someone might find out they have a kid. They do have a kid. You exist and it’s not your fault and anyone who finds out they’re related to you would be lucky.”
“No.”
“I’m sorry, but Amber cannot be the only family you ever have. I literally forbid it.”
