The Amish Midwife - By Mindy Starns Clark Page 0,105
for coming and walked him out the door. “I’ll talk with her,” came Marta’s faint voice as the door was closing behind her, “and convince her to drop this whole DNA thing.”
No, you won’t, I thought fiercely. I took the stairs two at a time and grabbed my computer and my purse, and then I flew back down the stairs. I was at the door before Marta had come in, and without saying a word, I breezed past her to my car.
“Lexie,” she called after me, “come back.”
I shook my head as I climbed into my car. I’d had enough.
Running away from Marta meant going to Lancaster General and sitting with Sean while he had a late dinner. As he ate I told him about my day, starting with finding my name whited-out from the family Bible and ending with Alexander and Marta trying to bully me about the DNA testing. He listened attentively to the whole tale, commenting occasionally, and then he urged me to stand strong on the matter of the DNA testing if it was important to me.
“Do you know how accurate those send-away tests are?” I asked.
“Not really, but I have a buddy here who works extensively with DNA. He could do the testing for you and probably have some answers back in no time.”
“Seriously? Sean, that would be wonderful.”
Grinning, he pulled his phone from the pocket of his lab coat and typed in a message. Moments later came the reply, which he read to me.
“‘No problem getting the test done, but sisters are hard to match. Need a DNA sample from the mother.’” Sean met my gaze, a look of pity on his face.
I slumped in my chair until I remembered the carved box with its two locks of hair, one that looked as if it had come from an infant, and the other that had probably come from an adult.
“Wait! Would hair work?” I asked, thinking of the lock of longer, thicker hair had surely been Giselle’s.
Sean smiled as he texted his friend back. I held my breath. Sean’s phone beeped again. He read it quickly and then met my gaze.
“Bingo! He’s going to be out of town for a few days, but he can do it next Wednesday if you want.”
“I’ll get a hold of Ada.” She was twenty-four. Surely she could make her own decisions. But she was also totally dependent on her parents and seemed to be very much a daddy’s girl. I took out my phone, wrote out a quick text, and hit “send.”
“Thanks, Sean.”
“If you get the info you want, do you think you can let all this go?” He picked up his turkey wrap.
I shrugged, feeling too fried to answer.
“Cuz this is the sort of thing that could send a person over the edge.”
I wasn’t sure if he meant me or him. I changed the subject to his house. He’d had four people look at it already and an offer had come in an hour before. He was going to think about it overnight, but he was pretty sure he’d accept.
“How about your place out West?” he asked.
I told him I hadn’t called my Realtor. The truth was that I didn’t have the emotional energy to deal with that too. I’d wait until she called me.
Next he asked about Marta’s case.
“Oh no,” I groaned. “Her pretrial hearing is next week. Wednesday. I promised I’d go with her.”
“And miss your DNA test? Come on, Lexie, blow her off. Look at how she’s treated you over and over.”
I couldn’t blow her off. I’d tried. There was Ella and Zed. She was their mother. Beyond that, she was my aunt. How could I explain to Sean that in spite of everything, she knew me before. She was part of my story. “I can’t.”
“Okay, then. I’ll ask my buddy if next Thursday will work instead.”
“And I’ll ask Ada.” Both of us pulled out our phones. I was pretty sure I had a couple of prenatal appointments Thursday morning, but Marta would simply have to reschedule them. That’s all there was to it.
“Is Ada pretty passive?” Sean asked as we both sat and waited for our replies.
“What do you mean?”
“Will she do what anyone tells her to?”
I shook my head. The young Amish women I’d met so far were quite capable and not the type who could be pushed around. “No. In fact, she acts pretty normal.” I hesitated. Maybe normal wasn’t the word I was looking for. “Likeable.”