Page 74 of The Soul Never Forgets

“Well, I’ll be damned. I was friends with your father in high school. We played football together. I was quarterback and he was wide receiver.”

“Oh wow. That’s incredible.”

My dad was a huge football fan. The man was forever watching games on television. And he loved telling me about his glory days.

“I didn’t know Matt had passed away. I’m sorry to hear that.”

I take out my phone and scroll to a picture of my brother on his social media. “This is my brother, Chase. Everyone says he looks like my dad.”

“Wow, he sure does. That’s a blast from the past.”

I’ve never met any of my dad’s classmates. “What was my dad like in school?”

“He was the best. Funny, smart, all-around great guy. The girls loved him. They thought he was so good-looking.”

It’s a shame that Chase didn’t take after Dad in the personality department. My brother was only nine years old when Dad died. Maybe things would have been different if they’d had more time together.

“You must look like your mother. I don’t see your dad in you,” Mr. Wescott says.

He wouldn’t since we aren’t genetically tied.

“I’m adopted so who knows?” I shrug. “I could look like the milkman for all I know.”

“Was it a closed adoption?” Diana asks.

About as closed as it can get since there are no records about my actual birth. “I was abandoned as a newborn. No one has a clue who my birth parents are.”

“Well, whoever your parents are, they passed along their good genes. You are a talented, beautiful young woman.”

“Thank you. That’s a very kind thing to say.”

“I asked about your adoption because my best friend was adopted. She did the DNA testing through an ancestry site and found blood relatives. Have you thought about doing that?”

I’m not sure I want to find blood relatives. “I’ve considered it, but there’s more at stake for me than the typical child who was put up for adoption.”

“I see why you’d feel that way having been abandoned.”

It’s more than that. “I wasn’t just abandoned. I was left for dead inside a trash bag in a dumpster.”

Diana’s eyes widen. “Behind the Kmart here in Metairie?”

“Yes, ma’am. That was me.”

“My goodness. I’ve always wondered what happened to that baby. To you.”

“Here I am alive and well.” And thriving now that I’ve found Dawsey.

“It’s too bad that businesses didn’t have cameras back then. I’m sure you’d like some answers about who did that to you.”

Not really. “People think I want to know the details about what happened when I was born, but I don’t. I made the decision to forgive my birth mother for what she did to me and made peace with it a long time ago.”

“That is an amazing amount of grace to show toward a person who wronged you in such a way. I don’t know many people who’d feel the same.”

“It’s a personal decision I had to make for my own peace of mind.” What good could come from tracking her down and trying to shame her for what she did? It wouldn’t change anything, and it wouldn’t make me a better person for having done so.

“That’s a true testament to the beauty of your soul.” His mother turns to him. “I think you’ve found a real gem here in Caroline.”

“I know I have.”

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