Her mother was quiet. No one moved in the silence. Bailey didn't sit down.
“Mia, leave us. I'll talk to you later,” her mother said. She didn't look in her niece's direction. Her eyes dwelt on Bailey.
Feeling the weakness in her limbs, Bailey reached for a nearby chair and sat down. “Mom?”
“You know I love you more than anything else in the world.”
Bailey didn't answer. What was she hiding?
“You're... adopted, Bailey,” her mother said.
Bailey sat still as a stone. Adopted? It couldn't be true. The woman sitting across from her wasn't her biological mother? Pang inside her chest increased. The father she grew up with and loved wasn't hers?
She felt the tears well inside. Her vision blurred. Her throat clogged, but she spoke despite her shaky voice. “Adopted?”
Her mother wiped a tear from her own face. “Yes.”
Bailey released a breath she didn't know she was holding. “Why didn't you tell me?” She was almost thirty. Why wait until now?
“The moment I held you in my arms, you were mine. I wanted to tell you, but it never was the right time,” her mother said.
“The right time? How do you think I feel now? What happened? Did my real parents not want me?” she asked. She had to know, even if she didn't feel ready to hear the news.
“There was... an accident. Your parents were in a car wreck when your mother was pregnant with you. You were an emergency C-section. They didn't make it.”
“And how did you and Dad get me?”
Her mother touched a hand to her chest. “I couldn't have kids. I found out around the same time your father's band was taking off.”
Bailey's muscles felt frozen. “Is that why he quit?”
Her mother nodded. “I wasn't that supportive of his career. I tried, but he traveled all the time. It was coming between us.” Her mother wiped her nose with a tissue. “I... when I found out I couldn't carry a baby, I called your father. He came home. He quit music and got a job.”
Bailey ignored the sense of vertigo. She had to hear the rest of this story. “What about... the adoption?”
Her mother continued. “We were all set to adopt a little boy, but the birth mother changed her mind at the last minute. So... when we got word a baby girl needed a home, we didn't hesitate.”
Time seemed to slow down for Bailey. Everything she knew was a lie. Sure, she felt loved, but she couldn't pinpoint the sense of being different growing up. Even with her love of music, no one related to her passion for it as her father. In the past, she ignored the feelings. It made little sense to feel out of place with loving parents and cousins she saw as siblings. Her family.
Now she knew. Her world shattered. She swallowed despite the lingering ache in her throat. Everything she'd been told her whole life fell apart in one day like a speck in space. Her life would never be the same. Her real parents… gone. Why did it feel as if she lost two families in one day?
Bailey shook her head and closed her eyes. “I... I think I need to go.”
“Bailey, talk to me,” her mother said.
She stood to her feet. “I have to get back to work.” She scurried for the door.
The drive to work was a blur. Her thoughts were blank, as if her brain had stopped working. She blinked slowly as she pulled into the parking lot of Helen's Salon and Nails. Bailey didn't even respond when Noelle called her name. Instead, she walked to the break room and
opened her locker.
Noelle followed. “Bailey?”
She stopped mid-action, dropping her coat to the linoleum floor. What was she doing?
“You're scaring me. What's wrong?” Noelle's forehead wrinkled.
Bailey only heard muffled sounds, as if she were wearing earplugs. She saw spots as light-headedness took over.