20. James

CHAPTER 20

JAMES

A s Billie vanishes into the women's room, I'm grinning from ear to ear. This is the best day of my life, hands down.

People stream in and out of the conference room, every other person trying to catch my attention. I wave and nod my hellos, but I don't want to talk to anyone right now.

Not unless that someone is Billie.

Needing to look busy so people don't approach me, I pull my phone out and find a text from Carlos.

Hey, man. How's Hawaii? All good at the conference?

I type back quickly.

It's amazing. Things are going well with Billie and me too.

Less than a minute later, my phone buzzes with a response. Haha, I knew something was going on with you! Well, I hope it's fun.

I shake my head at my friend's comment. No, Carlos, it's not like that.

He writes back. What do you mean?

I type out an answer, hesitate, then hit send before I can change my mind. Because I'm sure about this.

I'm sure about her.

I'm in love with Billie.

My friend's next text is full of enough emojis you would think a preteen sent it, not a grown adult. Congrats, man! You better bring this girl around soon. Jen will be stoked.

Feeling like I'm on cloud nine, I close out the messages app. Billie still isn't back from the restroom, so I check my email while I think about where I'd like to take her for dinner tonight.

At the top of my inbox is a message from Richard Sims.

It's at least three years since I invested in his first app, DNAU, and I didn't just get involved in the business sense. I was actually one of the first people to send a saliva sample in.

The app was still in its early development back then. I meant to follow up months later to see if there were any results, but it always fell to the bottom of my to-do list.

Now I see that there was more to it. It wasn't that I was too busy to check with the app creators. I was too afraid.

DNAU focuses on collecting genetic information, but it's also a way to connect family trees. For someone like me, who doesn't know who his birth parents are, that can be a loaded situation.

All I know about my parents is either that they didn't want me or couldn't take care of me. I've always figured there's no point in finding out anything else about them.

But now, standing in this hallway, I feel a new sense of life.

A new curiosity. Billie has woken something up in me. Hearing about the good life she's given her daughter, I can't help but wonder about my family.

What if there's more to my story than I know? What if I have siblings out there somewhere? What if my birth parents are still alive and want to connect with me?

Before I can talk myself out of it, I click on the link Richard sent and download the latest version of DNAU. Once in the app, I enter my login information and navigate to the family tree section.

My heart races as I click through the pages, looking for any hint of a match.

But then I see it. A match. Someone in the DNAU database is a relative of mine.

I feel a surge of emotions — fear, excitement, and curiosity all mixed together. I wonder who this person is and what they could tell me about my family.

There's something else: a small green leaf next to a blank spot that reads "Possible Child Match".

I freeze, struggling to process what I'm seeing. What does that mean? That I… that I have…

My mind races as I try to make sense of the situation. Could it be possible that I have a child out there somewhere?

How is this even possible? What woman in my past would have hidden her pregnancy from me? What woman would have hidden my own child from me?

It's there, though. Clear as day. There's no name listed, since the child must be a minor, but he or she is right under my own name.

I slump against the wall, my heart and mind racing.

I'm a father.