Rebecca hung up the phone. TC had just phoned to inform her that not only had he told Eve the truth, but Whitney knew as well. She got up and paced the room, checking her watch ever fifteen seconds.

She heard the doorbell, and heard voices.

” Thanks for picking me up from the airport, Gwennie.”

” No problem, Bobby. Do you know what this is about?”

” No idea. She called me last night, said she was sending the jet for me, and that I HAD to be here this morning.”

” Bobby, do you think she’s sick?”, Gwen asked, worried.

” Gwen, don’t go inviting problems.”, Ethan replied.

” Ethan’s right, Gwen. Let’s go find her. Mother?”

” In here.”

They all walked into the Library and saw Rebecca standing in front of the window. She turned around to face them. “ Ethan? What are you doing here?”

” Mother, Ethan’s my husband. I’m going to tell him anyway.”

Rebecca looked from one child to another. Ethan took the hint.

” Gwen, I’ll be walking the grounds. You come get me when all of this is done.” He kissed Gwen and closed the doors to the Library on his way out.

“ Well, take a seat.”, Rebecca ordered. Gwen and Robert sat on the sofa. Rebecca began to pace the room. This went on for several minutes until Gwen spoke up.

” Mother, why are we here? What’s going on?”

“ What’s going on….well, it’s difficult to explain.”

“ Then, start at the beginning.”, Robert commented.

“ In the beginning….I suppose, in the beginning, there were two teenagers, from completely different backgrounds. He was the working class tennis pro, and I was the girl, on the fringes, whose parents just got into the Country Club by the skin of their teeth, and whose social position was precarious at best.”

Rebecca smiled and looked down to her chest. “ Do you know that I’ve had ‘these’ since I was fifteen years old? And, this has done me well. But, men don’t care past ‘these’. Only one did.  He actually talked to me. Listened to me. Cared about what I thought. But, we were from two different worlds, and in the end, I looked out for my family. I wanted the Country Club status. After all, what was love, but some word bandied about by people who actually had to work for a living. “ Rebecca looked over to see Gwen shaking her head.

” Yes, Gwennie. I know that you disapprove of that line of thinking, but that’s how my life was. When I got to college, my father made sure that I knew that his investment in my education was so that I would find a husband, plain and simple. Hopefully a husband that would help him expand his business. Of all the promising young men, your father was the one who could help my father, who had fallen on very hard times. In fact, I was going to have to drop out of college, because Daddy couldn’t pay the next semester’s bill. So, I did what I had to do. I got Jonathan to fall in love with me, and we married right after his graduation.

You came eleven months after the wedding, Bobby. Gwen came a few years later, and I settled into the role of Mrs. Jonathan Hotchkiss. It wasn’t a bad life, but, there was something missing.

One day, I was driving around the countryside, and my car had a flat tire. I stood by the road, waiting for someone, anyone to come to my aide. Someone did. Someone who, once upon a time, had meant a great deal to me. He changed my tire, and as appreciation, I treated him to lunch, at this wonderful quaint diner near Portland. We got to talking, and it was like no time had passed. He was willing to argue with me about politics, and the latest articles in The New Yorker and The Economist. We talked for hours. Before I knew it, it was dusk, and I had to get home. I….I knew I shouldn’t, but I asked him if we could meet again. His family had a cabin down at the lake, and he agreed to it.

Sometimes, you just want someone to really LISTEN to you. Nobody listened to me. Not my parents. Certainly not my so-called friends. Your father listened to me, as long as I stayed within the boundaries of being his trophy wife. But, nobody ever made me feel like they really wanted to hear what I said, except for him. He…he was having trouble in his marriage, and he had separated from his wife. We were two lonely people who just enjoyed the other’s company. There were no promises made. I wasn’t leaving your father, and he didn’t ask me too.

His wife turned up pregnant, so he went back to her, wanting to work things out, because he’d always wanted a family. When we said goodbye, there were no bad feelings between us.”

” Mother, is this story the impetus for you admitting that you’re remarrying some old flame? If he makes you happy, fine. When do we meet him.”, Gwen said, bored.

“ Gwennie, please don’t interrupt me. This is very hard for me.”

Bobby rolled his eyes. “ Continue, Mother.”

” Well, he went back to his wife, and I settled back into the humdrum of my own life. It was going to be a pleasant memory for me, until one day, I realized that my clothes didn’t fit. I went to the doctor, and got the surprise of my life – I was pregnant.”

” Pregnant?”, Gwen questioned.

“ I had slept with your father, soon enough after my affair ended, so I announced to your father that we were having a third child.”

” Mother, you didn’t.”, Bobby admonished.

” I remember that pregnancy. Oh, Mother, I remember we went to Europe with Daddy on a business trip, and when we got home, you told us there was no baby. Mother, I’m so sorry. I know you must have been devastated. You just wanted to be honest with us. I understand, Mother.” Gwen got up and came over and hugged Rebecca. “ I know this must have been hard on you, Mother, but we love you. I’m sorry you went through such a bad time alone.”

Gwen tried to hug Rebecca again, but was pushed away. “ Gwen, my baby didn’t die.”

Gwen looked at her mother. “ What do you mean, your baby didn’t die?”

” I mean, my child from the affair didn’t die. My baby lived. “

” If your baby lived, then where the hell is it?”, Bobby asked.

” I had no intention of keeping the baby. I couldn’t. It wouldn’t have worked.”

Gwen stared at her mother. “ What do you mean, you had no intention of keeping the baby. It’s done all the time, Mother. Women who have babies by men other than their husbands. It’s not like Daddy would have known.”

” Oh, he would have known, Gwen. It would have been very evident. “

“ My God. Your baby is Black or Hispanic?”, Bobby asked.

Gwen and Bobby stared at their mother, waiting for an answer.

” Yes, your sister is bi-racial. Her father is African-American.”

” S….sister? We have a baby sister?”, Gwen asked.

” Yes. “

” So, what…you hooked up with some agency and tossed them your Black baby, never looking back?”, Bobby asked.

” I…I didn’t have to give her to an agency. Her father took her.”

“ Oh….so, you called him up and told him that his bastard wasn’t good enough for your Country Club set, so the kid had to go!”

” Gwen, please..”

” REBECCA, please! Spare me. That’s what it came down to. Don’t lie. You couldn’t risk your buddies at the Country Club finding out that you had a Black child. So, you tossed her over to her father. Wait… you said that he had a WIFE. His WIFE agreed to this?”

” He…we arranged for them to adopt the baby.”

“ Shit, this just gets better, doesn’t it Becs?”, Bobby snarked. “ I….I knew you were low. I knew you had few if any morals, but even ‘ I ‘ didn’t think you’d throw away your own child. And, for what? Some designer clothes and jewels? Yeah, what an exchange for a child’s life.”

” My daughter had a good life!”, Rebecca protested.

“ Don’t! Don’t call that girl your daughter. That would intimate that you considered yourself her MOTHER, and we ALL know that’s not true!”

” Gwen…”

” I don’t believe this. This is too surreal. You threw away your child, without a second thought. Moved on, and haven’t remotely cared whatsoever about her. You aren’t remotely the woman that I thought you were. You are a stranger!”

” Gwen..”

” What I want to know, Becs, is why you’re telling us now? You’ve lived your life with this façade for this long. Why the confession?”, Bobby asked.

“ Because…your sister is dying. She has leukemia and she needs a bone marrow transplant. She needs for the both of you to be tested because you’re possible donors.”

Gwen and Bobby looked at one another, and then Gwen’s face exploded with shock.

” OH MY GOD! WHITNEY RUSSELL IS YOUR DAUGHTER, ISN’T SHE?”, Gwen exclaimed.

Rebecca looked down at the floor.

” Ethan told me the other day that Chad was worried about Whitney’s illness. Whitney IS your child!”

“ Yes…she’s the child I had by T.C.”

Gwen shook her head. “ I hate you, Rebecca. You are loathsome human being, and I don’t want you in my life, EVER! I’ll go get the test, and if I’m compatible, I’ll help Whitney. But, I want nothing to do with you. I wash my hands of you.” Gwen gets her purse and walks out of the room. Rebecca looks at Bobby.

” Don’t look to me for sympathy, Becs. You sicken me. I’ll help this girl, if I can, but lose my phone number.” Bobby walked out on Rebecca too.

“ GWEN! BOBBY!  PLEASE FORGIVE ME! Please forgive me..”, Rebecca cried as she sank to the floor.