Читать книгу The First To Know - Эбигейл Джонсон - Страница 11
Оглавление“Hello? Earth to Dana.” Ivy waved a hand in my face, breaking my stare at my phone screen.
“What?”
“A bunch of us are going for ice cream. Are you in?”
Half a dozen pairs of eyes were on me, including Jessalyn’s.
“Something wrong?” she asked, and then started to smile. “Wait, is it...” Her gaze flicked to my phone, and her grin grew. She lowered her voice so that only I could hear. I hadn’t told anyone else on the team what I was doing, because I hadn’t wanted word to get to my dad/our coach. “Is it something from your grandfather?”
I fought to keep my hand steady as I shoved my phone and cleats in my bag, not bothering with anything else. “No, I just need to go. Sorry.” Then I was pushing open the heavy locker room door and bursting into the now-empty quad.
He can’t be eighteen.
He’s my 65-year-old grandfather.
No.
It was a tiny word, so I said it out loud. “No.” A million times no.
No, no, no.
There was no way that Dad had an affair.
There was no way that he fathered a son.
There was no way that I had a brother less than a year older than me.
Dad would never cheat on Mom.
Dad would never do this to us.
It had to be a mistake.
My steps picked up speed as I headed for the parking lot. I broke into a jog as I reached the blacktop, then sprinted to my car. As soon as I was inside, my phone was in my hand and I was typing.
Brandon,
I must have read the results wrong. I do think we’re related somehow. Maybe you’re a cousin? Would you be willing to meet me? I have so many questions and I think you’re the only one who can answer them. Name the place, name the time.
Dana
I dropped the phone in my lap the second I hit Send. My message sounded hella creepy, but I couldn’t take the time for anything more composed. His message had been sent only twenty minutes ago, so there was a good chance he was still online and would—
He wrote back.
Dana,
You should try to get your money back. I’m the third Brandon McCormick, and before that there were five Davids. We are from Arizona though, going back at least four generations. I’d have to check with my dad to confirm that. I’m not really sure how the family side of all this DNA testing works—I was interested in my geographic heritage, not finding relatives—but my family tree is full up, no unaccounted for branches. But, hey, I work at the Jungle Juice in Mesa. Feel free to stop by if you have any more questions.
Sorry I can’t be more help,
Brandon
My breath came out in a rush. The third Brandon McCormick. As in his dad was also Brandon McCormick. As in his dad was not Dennis Fields. Brandon seemed very confident in his family tree. Could it be a mistake? Had the DNA company messed up the samples? People were fallible; it could happen. I did a quick search for DNA-testing failure rates, and pages of results came back. Something loosened in my chest. A mistake would make more sense than Dad having an affair, which made no sense at all. And mistakes had happened before—not often, but more than once. I needed only once. There was an option to send in another sample for a retest, but I couldn’t swing that without Selena’s help, and there was no way I was waiting another month and a half for the results. I wasn’t waiting a day.
I looked up the address for the Jungle Juice in Mesa. It was only a thirty-minute drive.
I started my car.
