Page 67 of Wicked Deeds

“The National Genetics Registry.”

“Oh,” she said. “You have your DNA in it, too?”

“Yeah. I don’t know who my dad is either, so my grandparents did it a long time ago.”

“You never found him?”

“No, there weren’t any matches back then, and I stopped looking. I made up my mind a long time ago that I didn’t need to know.”

“Yeah, me too.” She grimaced and picked up her spoon, twirling it between her fingers. “I don’t know how I feel about knowing he’s out there somewhere.”

I knew how I felt about it. If it was Jack, I wanted nothing to do with him. Less than nothing. But I’d deal with Jack after the first hurdle of this little chat.

“Well, it doesn’t really change anything, like Meredith said,” I said, trying to sound casual. “You don’t have to contact him.” In fact, I was going to do my best to make sure she didn’t.

“Yeah, that’s true,” Gwen said, still twirling her spoon. It danced through her fingers with the ease of long practice. Or innate Fae grace. “So you got a notification?”

“Yeah. And it’s weird timing because I never had one before. I don’t come from a big family on my mom’s side. And I guess my dad’s relatives aren’t team DNA testing.” I waited a moment to see if she might make the connection I had.

She didn’t. Just twirled the spoon and watched me, waiting for me to keep talking.

“I was wondering if it might be you,” I said in a rush.

Gwen’s mouth dropped open. The spoon dropped to the table with a sharp clang. “Me? Why?”

I understood the surprise. “For one thing, I’m not fond of coincidences. The timing is suspicious, don’t you think? I mean, sure, lots of people must be searching every day, but, you know, you put yours in last night, and suddenly I have a notification that my medical history was accessed.”

She looked as shocked as I had felt earlier. “You think you’re my sister?” She shoved a hand into her hair, pulling out her hair tie, as she shook her head. “We don’t look anything alike.” She tugged at her perfect blonde hair, then nodded at mine.

“I’m aware,” I said drily. “But genetics aren’t straightforward.”

She blinked slowly. “Still. Sisters? Us?”

I held my hands out, palms up. “I don’t know. But it’s possible. And I know it’s weird. But I wanted to tell you straight away.”

“How do we find out if you’re right?”

“Well, we can clear up the half-sister part,” I said. “We can both send a contact request.”

It sounded simple enough. But the knowing wasn’t the complicated part of all this.

“What if it’s not me?” Gwen objected. “Do you want to contact some stranger?”

Probably not. Not without some time to think. But Gwen wasn’t a random stranger. “Meredith said if we both give her permission she can compare the history you received to mine. That’s the other way.”

“You talked to Meredith about this?”

“You were asleep,” I said, suddenly defensive. “And I wanted to know if she thought I was being an idiot to think it might be you.”

“I take it she didn’t?” Gwen suddenly sounded very English.

“No. Which is why we’re having this conversation. And like I said, I know this is weird. But I think it’s better to know.”

She started to nod, then froze. “If we’re half sisters, my father is yours, too.”

“Yeah.”

“You didn’t get a notification about him?”

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