“I’m sorry I called,” she said.
“No, thank you for calling. It’s . . . it’s good to know you cared.”
We said our goodbyes and hung up. I couldn’t be sure how much time passed while I just held the phone in my hands and stared at the wall, thinking about that conversation, but I knew that by the time Adam got home, it was dark out.
“Hey.” He set down his keys on the table by the door and slid off his shoes before walking over. He was holding a bouquet of wildflowers in one hand and a brown takeout bag in the other. When he reached me, he leaned in and kissed me. “How was your day?”
“It was . . . interesting.” I sat up straighter. “I just got a call from my mom?”
“Oh? What’d she say? Yes to Christmas in Mykonos? Stella and Cameron just confirmed.” He walked over to the kitchen and started unboxing our food.
“No. I mean, my birth mom.” I stood up and walked over.
“What?” He froze, the wooden chopsticks in his hand as he stared at me.
“She just called and apologized. It was the weirdest freaking phone call of my life.”
“It sounds intense.” His brows rose. “Is she still a nun?”
“I didn’t ask.”
“Is she still at Ellis?”
“I didn’t ask.”
“Did you talk at all?”
“I . . . yeah.” I helped him take our food to the table and sat down next to him. “It’s crazy. All my life I wanted to know about my birth mother and it took everything that happened for me to realize that it wasn’t really what I needed. I just needed family.”
I thought about The Swords, Stella, Karen, Dr. Thompson, The Eight, and all the people I’d met throughout all of this. They weren’t the family I’d been given. They weren’t even necessarily the family I would have chosen for myself. But they were definitely the family I needed. The family I loved. That I’d do anything for. I put my hand on Adam’s. He seemed to sense that I had a lot on my mind, because he stopped eating.
“What’s up?”
“You know I love you, right?”
He dropped his chopsticks and laughed.
“Why are you laughing?” I slapped his hand, unable to stop my own smile.
“Because you finally achieved your full potential.”