Page 51 of Tear Me Apart
Lauren’s breath catches, and she forces herself to stay in the chair. She feels so betrayed, so wronged. This man she trusts, who’s said come to him at her own pace, has just thrown the gauntlet at her. But she thinks of Mindy’s face, the flush on her cheeks, the happiness, the energy, and she swallows her goddamn pride.
“I don’t know who she is. It was a closed adoption. She was a teenager, and the doctor who hooked me up with her is dead now. I don’t know how we get her records, or if they even exist.”
“What was the doctor’s name?”
“Dr. Soledad Castillo. She died soon after Mindy was born, barely a year later. I saw her obituary in the paper.”
“Can you tell me the circumstances of the adoption?”
She takes a steadying breath and tells him the story.
He sits in silence, absorbing. “You don’t have the name of the mother?”
“No. She was a young, scared Hispanic teenager. She probably lied to Dr. Castillo about her identity anyway.”
“Thank you for being honest with me, Lauren. At least armed with this information, we can single out the donors and try for an ancestral genetic match.”
“You’re going to look for Hispanic donors, you mean?”
“Correct. It might help. Now—” he steeples his fingers, and she braces herself. “Would you be willing to do a public plea?”
“A public plea?”
“Yes. Since we won’t have the adopting doctor’s help... A friend of mine works for Channel 9. Mindy is a local hero. It’s a no-brainer local interest story. We ask for anyone who might know the birth mother to come forward—they can do it anonymously if they want—and also ask for people to submit to testing to see if they’d be a match.”
She is already half out of her chair. How could he? My God, it’s bad enough she is in this situation, to go on the news and talk about it?
“No. Hell no. Absolutely not.”
“Lauren, it wouldn’t only be Mindy we’d be helping. There are more people, more children, who need stem cell transplants. To get people to sign up for the donor registry would have lasting implications. So many lives could be changed. The Hispanic database isn’t as populous—”
“We will not be an infomercial. And we have no intention of telling Mindy we are not her biological parents.”
His smile is sad now, and she feels dirty somehow, that she’s disappointed him.
“Lauren, it may be outside of my purview here, but is hiding the truth from her truly in her best interest?”
“It is none of your business.”
“It most certainly is my business.” Dr. Oliver is on his feet now, too. She’s never seen him lose his cool; he is dangerously close to yelling. “My job is to provide the finest care I can to my patient. And Mindy is my patient, Lauren, not you. This situation is bigger than you or your feelings, even your privacy. Your daughter will die if we don’t find her a match. Do you understand me? She will die. We have no recourse. We must go public and try to find her biological family.”
This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening.
She feels light-headed, nauseated. Her whole world is slipping away from her, out from under her. She starts to go down, but strong, familiar arms catch her.
“Jasper. I’m so glad you’re here,” she hears Dr. Oliver say. “I was just explaining to Lauren an option—”
“I heard,” Jasper says. “Honey, are you okay?”
Lauren shakes her head; it is buzzing, she is going to faint.
“Maybe Dr. Oliver can get you some water.”
“Of course. I’ll be right back.”
Dr. Oliver pulls the door closed behind him, and Lauren collapses into Jasper’s arms. A sob wrenches from her chest. “We can’t. We can’t tell her. Not now. Not yet.”
He kneels on the floor in front of her. “Lauren, we have to. We have to save her life, and if that means sharing the truth, we will do it. She’s not going to feel differently about you, I swear it. She adores you. She might be mad for a little while, but we’ll make her see reason. I think a public plea is a good idea. We’re out of options otherwise. Please, Lauren. She’s my daughter, too, and I don’t want to lose her.”
