Just in case.
They lay together under clean sheets and blankets having taken long, hot showers. Earlier they had gone to a Thai restaurant with Diana. Neither had eaten much Thai food before, but they were on the path now to being lifelong foodies.
Food. It was beautiful. The three of them had gone to a Ben and Jerry’s and ended up crying like idiots at all the ice cream.
Sam had still not shared everything with Astrid. He’d been holding on to the last of what his mother had told him, needing to make some sense of it in his own mind. But no matter how he turned the facts around, looking at them in this light or that, he still couldn’t accept it all.
“I love you, Astrid,” he said.
“Yes. I’m already in bed with you. You don’t have to sweet-talk me.” She put a cool palm on his chest and smiled.
“The gaiaphage,” Sam said.
Astrid pulled her hand away. “Why are we talking about that?”
“Because my mom . . .” He sighed.
“Ah.” She sat up, giving him a little room.
“I told you why she gave Caine up. She felt something was wrong with him. She felt guilty and believed he was almost a punishment on her. She gave him up for adoption to a couple who, unfortunately, also sensed something wrong. Or maybe they were just jerks, I don’t know. Anyway, my mom said when his adoptive parents came to visit Coates, there wasn’t much sign of affection.”
“That would not surprise me,” Astrid said cautiously.
“Anyway. I told you that she admitted to having an affair. I didn’t tell you all of it. I asked her. It was silly to, but I had to know. Was my father my father? Who exactly was the man who died that day in the power plant?”
“I thought you might have asked her. I’ve been waiting for you to tell me. When you were ready.”
“Stop thinking you’re always one step ahead of me.”
“Sam. Accept the fact that I’m always one step ahead of you.”
He reached an arm around her and pulled her close again.
“So, according to my mother, one of us, Caine, was the spitting image of the man who died when the meteor struck. The man I thought was my father. The man whose DNA was absorbed and became part of the gaiaphage.”
“That was the connection,” Astrid said. “That’s why your mother started to feel there was something evil in Caine. It was the gaiaphage.”
“Except that it wasn’t that simple,” Sam said. “My mom went to work at Coates once she realized Caine was there, so close to Perdido Beach. She was a nurse, so she was able to get a blood sample. And she was able to compare the two of us genetically.”
“Oh, my God,” Astrid whispered. A step ahead.
Sam sighed. “It turns out, despite her having an affair, Caine and I were true fraternal twins. The human DNA that became part of the gaiaphage wasn’t just Caine’s father. It was from our father.”
“You and Caine,” Astrid breathed.
“My mother sensed Caine’s connection to the gaiaphage. But not mine. We had the same connection. We had the same DNA. But Caine grew up without . . . you know. Without . . .”
“Without love,” Astrid said. “All of his life.”
“But not at the very end,” Sam said. “At the very end he found it.”
She put her hand back on his chest, then moved closer still to kiss his neck. “It’s over, Sam. Finally.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I guess it is.”
“Turn out the light, Sam.”
Sam reached for the switch and turned out the light.