Emily's Daughter Read Free Page A

She spent a lot of time in her room, reading and talking to her child. As the baby grew inside her, so did her motherly instincts. Everything was set for the adoption, but somehow she never really believed it. She just kept hoping she could find a way to keep her child, which only made it harder for her in the end.
    Her mother delivered a girl the first week in June and her father called to say they weren’t doing well. Emily pleaded to go home, to be with them, but her parents refused. Her resentment over the new baby had vanished in the wake of all the turmoil in her life, and she wanted to see her new sister. Instead she sat by the phone waiting for news. She felt banished by her parents and knew she deserved everything that was happening to her.
    Her mother had a heart murmur and the birth had further weakened her heart. The months of June and July were rough for Emily because she didn’t know what was going on at home, but her father said not to worry. Everything would be fine.
    Emily’s baby was due at the end of August, but due to stress the baby came early. She lay in a hospital bed in excruciating pain, giving birth—alone. They told her she’d had a girl and Emily begged to hold her, just to see her, but the nurse said it was best if she didn’t. The baby was given to a couple who was waiting to love her and to raise her as their own. The nurse told her she’d done the right thing and in time she would see that, but she never did. Not a day had gone by that she hadn’t thought about her daughter in some way or other.
    When her father arrived, he found her in a fetal position, crying. He, too, told her she’d done the right thing. All she could think about was going home—to forget and to be with her family. Again her father refused, saying her mother wasn’t well and she had her hands full caring for the new baby. Emily said she could help, but her father said she needed to regain her strength and make plans for college. That was what her mother wanted for her. She felt as if her parents had washed their hands of her and she cried and cried…for herself…for her baby…for so many things.
    In September, her father took her to the University of Texas, where she was enrolled. Again there was no talk of going home. Her mother had sent her some pictures of her new sister and she clung to those like a lifeline. During Thanksgiving break, she was finally able to go home and see her sister for the first time. She was tiny and precious and Emily spent most of the week just holding her, talking to her, trying not to think about her own baby. Those memories came at night when sleep would elude her and she’d ache for a glimpse of her daughter’s face. Would she look anything like her? Or would she favor Jackson? On and on it went over the years and still she had no answers. Butshe prayed her daughter was healthy and happy and with people who loved her.
    She hadn’t known, when she left to have her child, that she’d never be home for any length of time again. She only went home to see her sister, and she was grateful they had a good relationship. Her mother said she spoiled Rebecca and that was another bone of contention between them, but if she could afford to give Rebecca the things she wanted, then she intended to. The arguments with her mother that followed were never pleasant.
    Emily slid lower in her chair, sighing deeply. Memories seemed to be weighing her down, smothering her. After all this time, she should be past the pain, but she wasn’t—that was why seeing Jackson so unexpectedly had thrown her. God, she’d made a fool of herself. Now what? Forget about him, she told herself. She was good at forgetting Jackson. She’d spent years doing it.
     
    I T TOOK J ACKSON T ALBERT about ten seconds to recover, then he made an excuse about getting something from his briefcase and turned away. Emily Ann Cooper. He couldn’t believe it. She was half woman, half child when he’d known her, but today he