Missing Me Read Free Page B

something
important about my dad. You owe me an explanation, because I don’t understand and that’s worse than anything.’
    We stared at each other. Annie blinked rapidly. She wasn’t going to tell me. I could see the resistance in her eyes. I clenched my fists, ready to storm out. Maybe I’d go back to
Lauren. Try and get the truth from her. And then Annie wiped her hand across her face, brushing away her tears. She looked up at me, clear-eyed and with a smile of resignation.
    ‘You’re right, Madison,’ she said with a sigh. ‘It’s time you and Lauren knew the truth about your birth father. Please come downstairs. Lauren’s here too.
I’ll tell you both everything I know.’

4
Allan Faraday
    I followed Annie downstairs, into the living room, where Lauren was perched on the edge of the couch. She looked up as I walked in, her face scrunched up with misery.
    ‘Mo?’ she said.
    ‘It’s fine,’ I said, without meeting her gaze. It wasn’t fine, of course. Lauren had failed to tell me what she knew about my dad
and
that she was pregnant. But I
didn’t want a big fight with her.
    I sat down across the room and waited, as Annie produced a small wooden box from the depths of the large scroll-top desk that stood in the far corner. With trembling fingers, Annie unlocked the
box and drew out a sheet of paper. She turned to me.
    ‘Lauren already knows this part: your dad and I tried to have a baby for over a year. We had some tests, and found that we couldn’t have children together. I was fine, but there were
problems with . . . with your dad. We talked about it for a while, then decided we should use a sperm donor.’
    ‘Did you do IVF?’ I asked.
    Annie nodded. ‘The donor was anonymous. All we were officially told were the things we’d been able to choose – like him having dark hair and eyes, the same as your dad, and
being six foot . . . so the same height . . . and that he was twenty years old.’ She hesitated.
    ‘But you found out more?’ I said. I glanced over at Lauren. She was sitting forward, listening intently, her hands folded over her swollen belly.
    Annie nodded slowly. ‘Like I say, that’s all we were officially told, but when I was in the clinic in Evanport, having the treatment, I got friendly with one of the nurses. I told
her how anxious I was about genetic problems . . . you know, things being inherited like diseases and conditions . . .’
    I frowned. ‘Don’t they check out the sperm before they give it to you?’
    ‘For some things,’ Annie said, ‘but not everything. It would be too expensive.’ She hesitated again. ‘Anyway, this nurse happened to be sympathetic. She thought the
clinic was skipping even the basic tests and trying to do things on the cheap. So . . . well, she didn’t want to make a fuss. She was scared of losing her job. But she gave me some extra
information about our donor. Not much, just a name and an address, but it was enough to make it possible for me to hire someone to investigate. I had to know everything would be all
right.’
    Well, that made sense. Annie was such a worrier – though I could hardly imagine her having the drive actually to organise an investigation.
    ‘Did Dad – Sam – know what you were doing?’ Lauren asked.
    ‘No.’ Annie sighed. ‘Your father was struggling enough as it was with the idea he couldn’t have his own children. It was different after you were born but, back then, he
couldn’t have handled knowing the other man’s name, let alone any other details.’
    ‘So . . . what did the investigator find out?’ I held my breath.
    Annie handed me the piece of paper from the wooden box. ‘This is everything I know,’ she said.
    I looked at the sheet. It was a report, typed in three paragraphs, on a man named Allan Faraday. I read the lines, but I couldn’t take in any of the information. This whole thing felt
surreal. I mean, how was it possible that this stranger was my biological father? I