He Missed Our Daughter's Birthday Again novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Brother

"Rabbits for everyone," my husband said.

He had put Junie in my sister's arms and stood up very slowly.

Clifton came in two steps and held out the basket.

"I heard the news, Leah. I'm so relieved he's here. Congratulations, my dear."

I was in a wheelchair beside the incubator, and I didn't take the basket.

"Dad," Roderick said, "the hallway."

"Surely we can..."

"The hallway. Now."

His voice was quiet, and it was a voice I had heard him use only in boardrooms.

Clifton set the basket on the nurses' counter.

We went out together, the three of us, with my sister behind me pushing the chair.

There were a dozen people in the waiting room beyond the NICU doors: nurses at the station, a couple holding hands, two men in scrubs eating from paper bags.

Roderick stopped in the middle of the floor.

"Who is Sammy's father?" he said.

"Son, this isn't the place for..."

"The lab report says it isn't me. You've paid his mother every month for six years. Last week a six-year-old called you Grandpa Cliff on speaker. Who is Sammy's father?"

"I'd rather discuss this at home."

"I'd rather you answered now," I said.

Clifton turned toward me with the same patient smile.

"Leah. You've had a terrible few days. I think you should rest."

"I'm resting. I'm sitting down, in front of my husband, and I'm asking you a question I think you can answer."

He looked from me to Roderick.

Something went out of his face.

"He's mine," Clifton said.

Nobody in the room spoke.

The couple with their hands clasped had stopped talking.

"Say it plainly," Roderick said.

"The boy is my son. Celia and I..." He moved one hand. "It began while she was seeing you. Long before she left you."

"While she was seeing me."

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