Silence.

“Mr. Chasez?”

“Huh?” JC snapped out of the fog he was in. He’d just had a million thoughts go by in about thirty seconds and had no idea how to even begin to process them.

“You are Emma-Claire’s biological father. Shayna has all of the paperwork for you to go and get the paternity test, but she was 100% positive that her daughter belongs to you. As there is no one left to care for the child on Shayna’s side, we have brought Emma-Claire to you,” Charlotte paused and waited for a reaction from JC.

“Um. Yeah. I don’t think I can – “

“I am leaving her here for a week. In that time, you can figure out what you need to do in order to best care for Emma-Claire,” Charlotte stood and handed JC a stack of papers. “In here you’ll find the necessary paperwork for getting blood work for the paternity test, a letter from Shayna to you, and information on Emma-Claire.”

“I don’t think you understand. I work around the clock. There’s no way I can – “

“That’s fine, Mr. Chasez. But I’ve done what I had to do and that was to come and leave the child with you. If you cannot care for her, we’ll have to put her in foster care. But we can’t do anything for a full week,” Charlotte reached into her purse and handed JC her card. “That’s my number. Call me on Tuesday to let me know how things are going.”

JC looked at the card, then at the child, and then back at Charlotte. “Wait, you can’t just leave me with her! I have no idea how to take care of kids!”

“Emma-Claire is a wonderful child,” Charlotte looked down at the little girl, who still had not moved from her spot on the couch. “Could I please see you in private?”

JC nodded and led Charlotte into his dining room. “Look, I can’t do this. I’m really sorry. But Shayna never let me know about her. And why didn’t you people call?!”

“We only had your number in Orlando and nobody answered there. This was a state of emergency. Emma-Claire’s grandmother died last week. Shayna’s older sister is in drug rehab up in Vermont. Her father left the family when she was in high school. You are the last known kin to her and it’s my job to leave her with you. She’s been through a lot, Mr. Chasez. I would suggest you tread lightly and at least give her a chance. You can set up the paternity appointment tomorrow. If it comes back negative, then we’ll look at our other options,” Charlotte was sympathetic but matter-of-fact. “It’s not ideal, I realize that. But you’re her last hope before foster care.”

JC looked back into the living room. Emma-Claire was staring straight ahead, her hands clasped in her lap. There was no way he’d repeat what his birth father had done to him. He’d at least take the test and go from there.

“Fine,” he let out a slight groan and shook his head. “But I hope you know that you guys have a sucky system for letting people know about shit like this.”

Charlotte said nothing, only walked ahead of JC to the little girl on the couch.

His daughter….supposedly.

“Emma-Claire?” Charlotte sat down next to her. “This is the man I was telling you about. He’s going to take care of you for a little bit, okay?”

“Okay,” Emma-Claire looked up at Charlotte and it was then that JC saw her give a tiny smile. A smile that looked very familiar to him.

Charlotte stood and walked to the door. “I’ll be in touch if you’re not in touch first. Please go easy on her. She’s had a very rough couple of weeks for a four-year-old.” Opening the door for herself, Charlotte gave a sympathetic nod to both JC and Emma-Claire, and then left, closing the door behind her. JC stood in the middle of his living room and dared himself to turn around. He smiled wearily at the child on the couch.

“Hi,” he finally spoke to her.

“Hi,” she replied almost in a whisper.

“Um, so, are you hungry? Want some breakfast? Or do you need to go to the bathroom or anything?” JC felt his voice crack.

“No,” Emma-Claire shook her head.

He had no idea what to do from here. And how in the world would he explain this to Jimmy or anyone at the studio tomorrow? Well, first thing was first – he was going straight to the doctor to get a paternity test taken as soon as it opened tomorrow. He’d figure out what to do with the child in between that time.

“Do you know who I am?” JC sat down on the chair across from the little girl.

“You’re my daddy. Your name is Josh. My mommy showed me a picture of you,” Emma-Claire gave all the right answers and JC just nodded aimlessly.

“Uh-huh,” he cleared his throat. “Um, hey, you know what? I have a big movie screen down in my basement. You wanna go downstairs and watch a movie while I go, um, make a few phone calls?”

“No,” Emma-Claire shook her head.

“Okay,” JC sighed, running his hand through his hair. What in the world was he supposed to do with her? He had the paternal instincts of a shoe. “Okay, well, you can just sit tight. I need to go call someone.” He didn’t wait for Emma-Claire to respond. He simply ran to the kitchen, picked up the cordless phone and dialed his mother’s number in Florida. If anyone could tell him what to do, it would be her…..

“But it’s Annie’s last day!” ten-year-old Ruby McGriffin called to her mother. “We should have pancakes cause it’s her favorite!”

“Well, we’re having waffles. Because the first thing Annie ever made you and Henry was waffles,” Mrs. McGriffin told her oldest child.

“What does Annie want?” Mr. McGriffin came downstairs, only hearing the last part of the conversation.

“I haven’t asked her. She’s still in her room,” his wife answered. Patsy McGriffin was dreading this day. Ruby and Henry were now ten and seven and were involved in so many afterschool activities that it seemed pointless for Annie Leighton, their nanny of four years, to stay on any longer. They’d discussed it six months ago and Annie had agreed that after Christmas, she would look at other jobs either in or around Orange County or simply move back to Ohio and start working on her Masters degree. Christmas had ended nearly a month ago now and they’d all been prolonging it. It had been Annie who had reluctantly brought up the subject the week before when she’d been at the McGriffin house all day and hadn’t seen Ruby or Henry until well after dinner. Ruby was involved in painting class three days a week, piano once a week, and gymnastics once a week. Henry played on a soccer league and had recently expressed interest in painting as well. It was only going to get busier as the school year progressed.

Annie had taken the nanny position the day after graduation from Miami University in Ohio. She’d majored in Early Childhood Education and wanted experience outside of the classroom before becoming a full-time teacher. Two of her friends had taken jobs as au pairs in Europe, but Annie saw the ad on a Nanny website for the McGriffin family in California and had immediately been intrigued. Corbin McGriffin was one of the heads at an entertainment firm located in the Capitol Records building in Hollywood. His wife, Patsy, worked from home selling her own line of upscale beauty products. Her business had taken off shortly after Henry had been born. Hiring a nanny had not been something she’d wanted to do. Her pride was bruised when she finally put the ad on the website a friend had recommended because she had never wanted to be the wife of a Hollywood entertainment exec who couldn’t handle motherhood. She still did motherhood beautifully, but Annie had been a huge help in that. She’d fit right in with their family from the beginning and losing her was going to be like losing a little sister in Patsy’s eyes.

“Good morning,” Annie came up from the basement where her bedroom was located. They’d furnished her with a huge suite, complete with her own bathroom, WiFi, television and Blu-ray player. Corbin had even told her she could take the Blu-ray player with her when she left.

“Annie!” Ruby squealed and dashed over to her, throwing her arms around Annie’s waist. Ruby had had a growth spurt and was now almost at Annie’s shoulder. Her name suited her for the long red curls she possessed. “We’re having waffles! I told Mom we should have pancakes but she said you made me and Henry waffles the first time you ever cooked us anything.”

“Ruby!” Patsy hissed.

Annie chuckled and shook her head at Ruby. “It’s okay, kiddo. You know I like waffles!” Ruby grabbed Annie’s hand and led her over to the kitchen table which overlooked the pool and backyard. Annie had tried not to think about how much she’d miss that view. Or the McGriffins. Her eyes welled up with tears whenever she thought too long and hard about it. She was staying in Los Angeles for one more week with a fellow nanny friend of hers before flying back to Ohio and starting the process of applying to grad schools. Her room downstairs was packed up and tomorrow she’d leave the McGriffins and they’d become an end to a very fun chapter in her life.

Nannying had never really been on her agenda but it had been the best four years she’d ever spent, next to the four she’d had in college. The McGriffins had taken her everywhere with them. She’d been skiing in the Swiss Alps, seen the sun set over the ocean in Australia, and ridden a camel in Morocco. Ruby and Henry were the little siblings she never had and she loved them more than she ever thought possible. Leaving them was going to be harder than anything she’d ever done before in her life.

“Annie?” Henry had asked her the night before, when she had finished reading him a story before bed.

“Yeah, babe?” Annie stood and placed the book back on the shelf next to his bed.

“Are me and Ruby always gonna be your favorite kids?”

“Always, Henry. Always,” Annie had promised him.

Because she never, ever thought it possible to love two kids as much as she loved Ruby and Henry McGriffin.

Karen Chasez listened to her son ramble on and on about this new -found daughter of his. He had called her every hour on the hour since 1:00 Eastern Standard Time. She’d already told him that, yes, he absolutely must get the paternity test taken care of as soon as possible, but in the meantime, he had to take care of the four-year-old now taking up space in his home. If he wasn’t her father, he should still be caring towards the child. She’d apparently gone through more in the last month than any child should ever have to go through and Karen knew that JC wasn’t heartless. He would take care of what needed to be taken care of until there was a solution.

“You probably should find out what she likes to eat. Have you read any of the papers you were given?” she asked him, holding the phone between her ear and her shoulder.

“No. She didn’t move from the couch for an hour. She finally had to pee and got up. Thank god she’s not in diapers!”

Karen chuckled. “I should hope not. She’s four!”

“Well, I don’t know how old kids are when they get out of them. Anyway, she’s finally watching a movie downstairs so I can clear my head,”

“You left her downstairs by herself?”

“She’s fine. There’s nothing that she can get into!”

“She’s four, Joshua,”

Immediately, JC bounded down the stairs to the basement expecting to see pillows strewn on the floor or the juice box she had being spilled all over the leather chairs. But Emma-Claire was quietly watching Cinderella and eating popcorn. Nothing else had been touched.

“She’s still fine, Mom,” he breathed a sigh of relief.

“Go make your appointment for tomorrow. You can at least leave a message at the doctor’s office. Then we’ll talk. If it ends up that I need to, I can come out to you for a few days and help you sort it all out. But honey, you need to think about what you’re going to do if the paternity test is positive,”

JC was quiet. Then, “Yeah, I know, Mom. I’ll call you later,”

“Go read up on this little girl. You don’t want to be feeding her things she might be allergic to or putting her to bed past her bedtime,”

JC sighed. “I have no idea what the hell I’m doing,”

“You’re babysitting right now. Leave it at that and call me tomorrow. I love you, Josh,”

“Love you, Mom,” JC hung up and leaned against the wall next to the stairs of the basement. He let out another sigh, still feeling a huge weight on his chest. The paperwork that Charlotte had brought with her was still in the living room. He walked down the hall and saw them there on the coffee table almost screaming at him. Sitting down in his recliner, he took out the first page and read it. It was a detailed account letting him know that Shayna had died of complications from leukemia. She’d been diagnosed only six months prior to her death. She and Emma-Claire had been living with Shayna’s mother in upstate New York where Shayna was a weather girl on a local television station and also worked one shift at a pub. Shayna’s mother had already been living with a heart defect and was in and out of hospitals. When Shayna had died, her mother was on hospice watch.

JC continued to read about Emma-Claire, whose birth name was Emma-Claire Elise Minello and she was born on May 9, 2009. JC calculated silently in his head. If he was her father, he knew good and well that she would’ve been conceived on or around his 33rd birthday when he and Shayna had randomly taken a trip to the Bahamas that weekend. He shook his head and decided not to think about that. Right now, he needed to get that paternity test taken care of and then he’d think about all the logistics.

He leafed through the papers briefly seeing that Emma-Claire was allergic to peanut butter – so the peanut butter sandwich he’d thought of making her for dinner was definitely out of the question. It listed the number of her pediatrician in New York and that she had had a bad case of chicken pox when she was two, but other than that no other major illnesses. He finally came to a sealed envelope and on the front in blue ink, was his name. The letter from Shayna.

Dear JC,

I guess if you are reading this then it means you’ve met Emma-Claire. I know you probably have a lot of questions. I guess I just didn’t know how to tell you that I was pregnant with your child. It wasn’t like we were in love or even that serious and I just didn’t want it to be a burden. I was planning on telling you, but time just slipped away from me too fast. I should have contacted you sooner and I know that and for that I’m really sorry.

I am guessing that you are planning on doing a paternity test and I don’t blame you, but I also want you to know that you were the only guy I slept with in that period of time. Yes, I admit that I was promiscuous when I got back to New York but I was already pregnant with Emma-Claire, I just didn’t know it. Anyway, I want you to take the test because I want you to be sure for yourself.

Emma-Claire has been nothing but an absolute joy to me for four years. She is the sweetest kid you will ever meet. She doesn’t whine or fuss much, just about typical four-year-old things. She loves to color in her coloring books and watch just about any Disney movie there is, though I prefer if she goes outside every now and then. She goes to bed right at 8:30, no exceptions, and she’s still taking naps after lunch during the weekdays. I have her in a preschool 2 days a week so she can get ready to start Kindergarten next year.

I know that you don’t have to take her, even if she is yours, but my hope is that the paternity test will turn out positive and that you will want to keep your daughter. I would hate to have to see her go into foster care after all she’s been through. I’ve already told her all about you and showed her pictures I had of us back when we dated. She is probably going to be shy around you at first but I hope you will stick it out long enough to see her true self. She is a wonderful little girl and as I write this to you, my heart is breaking because I only got her for four years. If you keep her, you will get to see all of her pivotal life-altering moments that I can only dream about.

I want the best for her, JC, and I really believe you can give her that. I love her so much and she is the best little girl in the entire world. I keep saying that because I want you to believe it. But I guess you just have to see it for yourself.

I wish I knew how this was going to end and all I can hope is that you will do what you think is the best for her and for you.

Always,

Shayna

JC read it twice more before he folded the letter up and put it back in the envelope once more. He had no idea what he was going to do whatever the test results were. At that moment, he looked up and saw Emma-Claire standing in the doorway of the living room.

“Hey,” he stood to his feet. “You hungry? It’s almost dinner time, I guess.”

“Yes,” Emma-Claire said softly and didn’t move.

“Um. Ok. So, I don’t really cook much. Do you like pizza?” he walked over to her and realized just how small and tiny she was looking down at her.

“Yes,” Emma-Claire nodded and JC saw a smile forming on her face. She hadn’t said much of anything to him and he remembered what Shayna had said in her letter about her being shy. JC relented and stopped being so nervous around the kid. He had to relax or else he’d probably drive both of them crazy.

“Awesome. Great. Okay. Let’s go order a pizza. Does that sound good?”

Emma-Claire nodded and followed him into the kitchen. She climbed into the booth of the breakfast nook and sat quietly while JC called a local pizza place. He turned around and gave her a nervous smile when he was done. He could do this. He could babysit for a week.

After dinner, it was nearing 8:30 and so JC walked with Emma-Claire up to the bedroom that he’d deemed hers for the time being. He unpacked her suitcase and found her Princess Jasmine pajamas and toothbrush. He soon learned that Emma-Claire did not brush her own teeth just yet and had his own sobering experience brushing her teeth for her. He kept cringing thinking she might accidentally bite him. Then, he helped her into bed and was about to turn off the light when he noticed she was still sitting up.

“Do you sleep sitting up?” he was trying to be funny but Emma-Claire shook her head and a tear rolled down her cheek. “Oh, um, sorry. What is it?”

The child pointed to her suitcase and JC walked over to it. He opened it and looked back at her. “Well?”

“My mommy’s picture,” Emma-Claire sniffed and it was then that JC lifted a pair of jeans and saw a crumpled picture of Shayna and Emma-Claire taken when she was a baby. He walked over to Emma-Claire and handed her the picture. The little girl took it, kissed it, and placed it under her pillow, then lied down. JC breathed yet another sigh of relief and turned off the light in the bedroom, cracking the door as he left.

“Goodnight,” he whispered before he walked down the hall.

“Goodnight,” he heard Emma-Claire whisper back before he went downstairs. He plopped down in his recliner again, wondering where on earth the day had gone and wishing he’d never gotten out of bed in the first place.