The Haven (Book 2 of The Claiming)

Chapter Fourteen

"My...My name's Isabella Reyes," I whisper.

This can't be a coincidence. I was the only Isabella Reyes at that ceremony.

Vivian and Karter don't know what to do, and Coda is looking dumbstruck.

At last, Vivian stands up and slowly glides across the small aisle of chairs to sit next to me. "You're seventeen?"

I nod.

"And you were raised in a facility?"

I nod again.

"We... we could get a DNA test while we're here," Karter suggests.

I stand up. "I need to get some air."

At the sight of my pregnant belly, Vivian does a double-take but remains silent. I've never been more self-conscious in my life.

Are these people my parents?

I slip out the front doors and stand outside in the cool spring air. The air smells fresh with rain, humid and sticky. My feet brush the cobblestone road as I edge around the outside of the hospital and gaze across the road, past the parking lot. Street lights brightly illuminate the city I've suddenly found myself in. Restaurants across the street, houses in the distant hills, grocery stores down a couple blocks. Palm trees litter the medians of the roads, beautifully dancing as the wind picks up and falls.

The door to the hospital opens, and Vivian joins me outside. Part of me wants to tell her to leave me alone, but I don't.

We both lean up against the brick of the hospital, staring at a street lamp with bugs flittering in and out of it. Vivian sighs. "I fell in love with Karter a couple weeks after I met him," she says. "He was the blind laundry boy at the birthing facility."

I give her a sideways glance, not entirely sure how to respond.

"He was so excited to meet me, even though we both would have much preferred to be meeting under different circumstances. All the same, I'm glad he was the selected father of my children. How did you meet Alec?"

"In a library when I was about twelve or thirteen," I say, the memory a haze. "I had a crush on him from the moment I met him."

"Did he claim you?"

I nod. "I didn't expect him to. I didn't even know he was in love with me."

Vivian nods, a soft smile curving her lips. "Love makes us do weird things, you know? I had the option to give you my last name, but I wanted you to have his. In my heart, I think I wanted to have his last name as well."

"When did you get married?"

"The day I turned eighteen. We couldn't wait another second," she laughs. "I'd already had a child with the guy, so I might as well."

I giggle. A new wave of emotion suddenly comes over me, and I try to stifle back tears. "We didn't mean to get pregnant," I whisper.

"Oh, honey," she says, wrapping an arm around my shoulder comfortingly.

The way a mother would comfort her child.

"I didn't plan on this third baby, but here we are," she jokes. "Listen, you are going to be the best mother in the history of mothers. And you want to know why?"

I smirk through my tears. "Why?"

"Because you have so many friends and family surrounding you to support you and advise you. There's no way you can screw this up!"