Page 41 of Someone Like You
Brooke took the lead. “This is my fault.”
“And mine.” Peter was quick to include himself.
“Yes. Both our faults.” Brooke looked at Peter, and then around the room. Her hesitation seemed to last a long time. Finally she drew a deep breath. “Maddie is adopted. She isn’t our biological daughter.”
Concern flashed across John’s heart. Was Brooke having a breakdown? Was she unwell? Maddie was definitely not adopted.
No one said a word for half a minute. Luke was the first to break the silence. “Brooke … I love you.” His tone was gentle, kind. “But with all due respect, Maddie couldn’t have been adopted.” He looked at the faces around him. “We were all there … at the hospital when she was born. I have pictures.”
“I have them, too.” Brooke nodded and held her hand up. “Of course. I know what you’re all thinking. I gave birth to her so how could she be adopted.” She paused. “But this is real.”
“It’s a long story.” Peter slipped his arm around Brooke’s shoulders.
And then, taking turns, they told it. How they couldn’t have children and after a few years they were contacted by a doctor friend who specialized in fertility. He’d come to possess three frozen embryos and—though it was cutting-edge science back then—he had surgically implanted them into Brooke.
“Only one of them took.” Brooke’s eyes looked damp again. “That’s why we have Maddie.”
Now the room seemed quiet for another reason. If John had to guess by the looks on the faces around him, everyone was stunned. Him most of all. He pressed his elbows into his knees and looked at Peter and then Brooke. His voice fell to a whisper. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
Brooke hung her head and Peter cleared his throat. He struggled to speak. “It seemed crazy. We … didn’t think it would work, and when it did … when we were pregnant … all we wanted … was to celebrate.” He sighed. “We thought we could tell you later.”
Suddenly John thought about his granddaughter, and he felt the blood leave his face. “You … you told Maddie, though. Right?”
Again Peter and Brooke waited. Shame came over their faces and Brooke shook her head. “We wanted to tell her.” She looked at her husband. “Every time we made a plan, the timing seemed off.” Her voice broke. “I kept thinking there would be a … better opportunity. When she was four or when she went to school. When she became a teenager or when she started high school.”
A crushing weight filled the room.
Brooke looked at Ashley. “I told Ashley a few days ago.”
“Yes.” Ashley sat a little straighter. “I said Maddie would be okay, and she and Peter just needed to tell her.”
“Instead”—Brooke glanced around the room—“a stranger told her.” And then she explained how a man had come to the Indianapolis Zoo from Portland. “He walked up to her and told her he had news about her biological family.”
John put his hand over his face for a few seconds. “Dear God, help her.” His words were barely audible.Poor Maddie. She must be feeling blindsided.No wonder God had wanted him to pray.
Peter explained how Maddie came home and told them about the stranger and his ludicrous claim that she had biological parents and a sister, London, and how he claimed to have news about her. “She thought the man had her confused with someone else.”
A sick feeling came over John. Why in the world hadn’t Brooke and Peter told Maddie sooner?
Kari folded her hands and turned her attention to Brooke and Peter. “So you told her the truth then?”
“We had no choice.” Two tears slid down Brooke’s cheeks. “She’s very, very angry with us.”
Elaine reached for John’s hand. He felt tears in his own eyes. “I’m so sorry. For all of you.”All of us,he wanted to say. But he kept that last part to himself. Brooke and Peter clearly felt bad enough. They needed to find a way to move forward. Not wallow in what should’ve been.
“She’s still your daughter.” Ashley looked from Brooke to John and then around the room. “That’s what I told Brooke last week, and it’s true. Never mind that she came from someone else at the beginning. She was born into this family. She belongs here.”
Luke and Kari nodded, and the others followed suit.
John found his voice. “Of course she belongs. She was knit together by God insideyou,Brooke.”But she deserved to know the truth a long time ago. That much was true, too.
There was no real way for John to wrap his mind around the news. Of all the things he had thought might be said tonight, this wasn’t on the list. Not even close. Never for a moment had he doubted that Maddie was Brooke and Peter’s biological daughter. He couldn’t imagine how broken Maddie must feel.
How devastated Brooke and Peter must be.
Peter sighed. “Hayley knows. She’s at home tonight, in case Maddie comes back.” He pinched the bridge of his nose, his voice thick with emotion. “She didn’t come home till after we were asleep last night and she was gone when we woke up this morning.”
“Wow.” Luke’s sigh was as heavy as the air around them. “I can’t imagine.”
