An Act of Persuasion - By Stephanie Doyle Page 0,30

she knew she would never really have to deal with being loved back. Ben: the safest crush on the planet.

“Totally messed up,” she muttered.

“What’s messed up? I solved the case. But now I need another one. I know we talked about doing discreet ads to start, but maybe we need something a little flashier out of the gate. Or maybe we should look at the major newspapers. People have to actually want me before I can be exclusive.”

“I have a case.”

Mark’s eyes widened. “Don’t keep me in suspense.”

“I’m pregnant.”

“Not news. You turn green and run for the bathroom at regular intervals.”

“Well, I was thinking, I’ve never really tried to find my birth parents. I should probably do that...to get their health information and stuff. Any genetic conditions. Things like that.”

Mark nodded. “Anna, you know how to track down personal information on the internet as well as anyone I know. You’ve never done that on your parents? Do you not know their names?”

Elizabeth Rochester and Luis Summers. Those were the names on the copy of her birth certificate she had. Her first foster family had encouraged her to have a copy of it. Thinking someday she might want to try to find her parents. Under the father’s name was printed Luis Summers. Under the mother’s maiden name was Elizabeth Rochester. She didn’t know if they were married or not, but she did know her mother had said her name was Anna. Anna had been what she’d been called. She took Summers because it seemed logical. He was her father. And because she liked summer. No school during summer. A perfectly sound reason to adopt a last name.

“Their names were fake.” Anna had been eighteen when she did her first internet search for some record of them. She hadn’t expected to find much, but wanted to see if anything popped. When nothing did, she dug deeper until ultimately she had to accept the truth.

Anna Summers wasn’t really her name.

“You’re sure?”

“I’ve never been able to find any records of an Elizabeth Rochester or Luis Summers that fit the description or age of my parents in the states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware or Pennsylvania. The only thing that makes sense is either my father or mother gave the hospital fake names when filling out the paperwork for my birth certificate.”

“They could be real names, but not from anywhere around here. Maybe they made their way across the country to the East Coast.”

“Maybe. It’s a possibility. But I was born here. They were drug users here. I can remember that much. You might think they had a criminal record, but there was nothing in the system for either of those two names. Two fake names on a certificate, not easy to track down.”

“What are you thinking?”

Anna shrugged. “I’m thinking you can do your magic. There were two people in this world. They lived and breathed. They conceived me. They lived together with me for a time at least. And left me. I would like you to find them. I would like to know if there is any family history I can trace.”

Mark hesitated. “This could open up a big can of worms for you. Emotionally.”

She’d finally confessed she’d been in love with Ben for six years. She would become a mother in the next six months. And she had no idea what the hell Ben meant when he said they were just beginning.

Can open. Worms out.

Besides, after all these years, finding her parents felt like the right thing to do. She was going to be a mom. She was going to have to, by moral obligation, give a shit about another human being who, for the first time in her adult life, wasn’t Ben Tyler.

It wasn’t right to hold on to her past like some kind of armor shield. She needed to let it go if she intended to give her child her full self. But before she could do that she needed answers.

“I’m ready for it. Whatever you find.”

“Okay.”

“I get an employee discount, right?”

“Absolutely,” Mark said, holding out his hand so they could shake on it. “Is, like, two percent off okay? Or hey, I know, I’ll write up a coupon and you can use that.”

“I can’t believe you decided to work for the government so long ago when clearly comedy has always been your calling.”

“I’m multi-talented. You still have that birth certificate?”

Yes. It was stupid, because she knew it wasn’t real. Not really. But it was her only connection to the