Perfectly Ms. Matched(55)

Her mom said, “Brace yourself. This isn’t going to be an easy story, but it ends well.”

“After the day I’ve had, I need a happy ending. I’m all ears.”

“Okay, but I think I’ll need just a tad more of this first.” Her mom drained the last of her wine and then set the glass aside. “I’ll just cut to the chase. Your father had an affair and got another woman pregnant when your brother was about two. Angry and hurt, I packed Greg up in the car and we drove to my parents’ house. It took your father about a month, but he finally came crawling back with his tail between his legs and asked us to come home.”

Holy crap! They had a brother or sister in the world they never knew about? “So how did you ever forgive him? And does Dad ever see his other kid?”

“Before I tell you that part, I want to tell you about the woman he had an affair with. She was very tall, gorgeous, and had long dark hair. Pretty much the opposite of me, and that bugged me a lot at first. She was an incredible but unknown portrait artist at the time, and had to support herself by working as a waitress in a small restaurant by your father’s office. That’s where they met. But she was a little eccentric and often stayed up for days painting and would have to call in sick to work quite often.”

“Dad had an affair with a waitress?” Jo’s head reeled at the revelation. “That just seems so random. He won’t even step foot in my café.”

“That’s part of the reason I’m telling you the story. The waitress eventually lost her job and asked your father for financial help. Of course your father agreed, worried for his baby’s health. One of the most difficult things that stood in the way of my forgiving your father was knowing he’d have to be involved with her and her child for the rest of my life.”

Jo nodded. “I can understand that. It’s like that with Linda and Chad. He’d have nothing to do with her, but he has to because of Ryan. She’s a horrible mother from what I’ve seen. It makes me want to steal Ryan from her and raise him myself. I love him very much.”

“Yes, those were my exact thoughts after their baby was born. While the woman wasn’t a bad person, she was just very focused on her painting. When your father and I checked up on them in the days after she’d given birth, suffice to say the baby’s needs weren’t being met. The thought of a helpless baby in that situation made my momma bear instincts go into overdrive. All children deserve to be loved and cared for. I’m glad you can see now with Ryan how easy it is to love a child who isn’t your own.”

Something about that story was ringing a little too close to her own. “Absolutely. So where are they now?”

Her mom paused and drew a deep breath. “To help reassure me their affair was over, your father offered to set the woman up in her own art studio in Europe. She’s become quite famous, actually. And we kept the baby to raise as our own.”

It took Jo a half a second for the absolute realization to hit that she was the baby in the scenario. Her parents had always told her little things about her birth mother, but hearing the whole story felt like she’d just taken a blow to the head. And to her already bruised heart.

Questions bounced around all at once in her skull, but she had to ask one thing to be sure. She’d seen her birth certificate. It had “unknown” listed for her biological father. “So Dad is really my birth father?”

“Yes.” Her mom’s eyes filled with tears. “Your father had Juliette leave his name off, to protect my dignity, and we adopted you when you were just a few weeks old. I hope you believed me all those times when I told you I love you as much as I do Greg. But if you want to change your mind now after hearing this and talk to your birth mother, please do that.”

Stunned and still in shock, Jo drew her mother up into a hug. “I’ve never cared to find my birth mother because you were the one who stuck around to love me. And don’t take this wrong, but I wish it had been the other way around. That you were my biological parent instead of Dad. Because I have no doubt about your love for me. But Dad doesn’t even seem to like me.”

“Jo, he loves you.” Her mom leaned back and shook her head. “Very much. He just doesn’t understand the artistic side in you that you clearly get from your birth mother. He always wanted for you and Greg to be able to support yourselves in the same manner you grew up. He wants what’s best for you, even though I know it doesn’t always feel that way.”

“And I suppose the thought of me having to bus a table now and then, and serve food, means I’m like my birth mother to him. That my joy of baking is like her obsession with painting. But he’s failing to see that while I do believe baking is an art and a way to express myself, I have ambitions too. With the right changes, my café can make much more money than my PT job ever could. And I think I’ll be an excellent mother again one day, because you showed me how it’s supposed to be done.”