As soon as J.C. got back he was bombarded with questions.

“Where were you?”

“I went out to lunch.”

“With who? Anyone we know?”

“No.”

“What’s in the bag?” Chris tried to pry it out of his hands, but J.C. clung to it tightly. He really wanted to talk to his family first, but he knew the guys wouldn’t let up, so he relented and told them to sit down.

“Uh oh. Are we in trouble?”

“No. First, I want to apologize for being such an ass lately. I didn’t mean to take my frustrations out on you.”

“We understand.”

“No you don’t. Even if you did, that was no excuse for the way I’ve been treating you.”

“So what’s been going on?”

“When we went home on break, I found out that my biological mom lives here, in Orlando, and has for the past five years.”

“WHAT?” They all echoed in unison.

“Since it was an open adoption, my parents still keep in touch with her occasionally, so they gave me her contact information, just in case I wanted to use it. She’s who I had lunch with today.”

“Whoa.”

“Yeah.”

“Are you okay?”

“A little. I still have questions, but we’re going to try to keep in touch.”

“How does your family feel about this?”

“I haven’t talked to them yet since I was cornered as soon as I walked through the door.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay. I wanted to tell you, I just didn’t know how.”

“That song you were recording the other day. Is this what it was about?”

“Yeah.”

“Now the lyrics make sense.”

“Guys? Can I have some privacy? I need to think things through.”

“Oh, yeah. Sure. If you need anything, just come find us.”

“I will. Thanks for listening.”

“Anytime. That’s what family is for.”

Family. J.C. was finding that he had a bigger family than he realized. When he was finally alone he looked at the gift that Kathleen had given him.

There were the pictures that he already had, plus ones on each of his birthdays, playing at the park with friends he didn’t remember, another of him with a dog. When did he have a dog?

Kathleen had captions on the back of all of them, so that helped, but it looked like they were from someone else’s life, not his.

Then, he thought, they were someone else’s life. These were her memories. He had no recollection of them. He was Karen and Roy’s son, not Kathleen’s.

If he was feeling this way, what about his brother? At least there was some type of evidence that they did have a relationship. But, it was Jacob, right? He had none.

J.C.’s parents had told him Jacob’s adoption was closed and that he had been given up at birth. What if Jacob was looking for his birth family, too, and had found out that she had kept him? If he were Jacob, he’d be upset when he found that out.

Jake decided that he wanted to know more, but was unprepared for what he found. He thought she’d kept his brother, but there were adoption papers for him, as well. Unlike Jake’s adoption, it was open, meaning that they had a relationship. He felt cheated.