Second Chance Secrets

Chapter Nine

Jessica had always prided herself on knowing when it was time to give up. Whenever that time came, she usually did. What she knew right then was that that time had come. So she did. She gave Sam all the details he needed. 

She told him where Emily was born and when. She told him of the long and difficult delivery. That her mother and sister had been there for her. Of how she had cried when she saw her daughter for the first time. And about how red and wrinkled and beautiful she had been. 

She told him about the first time Emily talked. The excitement of her first steps. And how she had wished every time that he was there. She had felt bad about him missing out on all those important moments, but she was really sad about the fact that her daughter wasn't going to have a father. Or even a father figure.

Jessica's father had died when she was 19 years old. He had been sick for a long time. In the end they had been happy that he had passed on. He had found out he had lung cancer two years before. From then on it had been two years of doctor's visit and hospital stays. In the end he had wanted to come home to spend his last days. 

Jessica had had to witness her mother's pain of having to watch her husband of 25 years go through getting worse as the days went by. It was also her belief that their family had gotten closet because of that time. Both Jessica, her sister and her mother had spent a lot of time taking acre of her father. Now the only man in the family was gone.

Jessica had no male family figure to depend on to help with her daughter. He mother was an only child and her father had had only one sister. Just like her mother, Aunt Jen had only daughters. Three of them in fact. 

Jessica had finally resigned herself to raising her daughter on he r own with no father in the picture. She had even started dreaded the time when her daughter would start asking about her father. Jessica had so far come up with no answer for the time that question came. She was actually hoping that it wouldn't come.

"My feelings are a bit mixed," Jessica said. "Not because I'm guilty, but because I always wanted to find you so she could have a father, but I don't know if that's something you want. What if you're ok with your batchelor life? Or what if you now have a family of your own that you don't want to interrupt."

Sam sighed and shook his head. He understood what Jess was getting at, but still, "Who asks a question about something they don't want to be a part of?"

"Some people do. Especially if they have a motive. It doesn't have to be what you want but what you plan," Jess replied.

"True," Sam said in return. "But that's not me. I don't have time to go after things I don't want." 

Sam was sure of one thing. He had taken one look at that little girls picture and known that he not only wanted to meet her but be a part of her life.