Chasing Abby(33)

Abby’s smile fades. “I want to know… what happened… I want to know why I wasn’t good enough.”
I look to Claire again and the tears are flowing freely again. “You were more than good enough. It had nothing to do with you and everything to do with me. I’m the one who gave you up.”
“That’s not entirely true,” I interject, squeezing Claire’s shoulder to assure her I’m not going to allow her to throw herself under the bus. “Claire initiated the adoption while I was on tour for my first album. She was afraid I would give up on the tour and my career if she told me the truth. She gave you up so that I could pursue my dreams and so that you wouldn’t have to grow up without a father, like we both did.”
The way Abby’s eyebrows are screwed up, I can see she doesn’t know what to believe. And I don’t know what to do other than tell her the truth. I have always relied on the truth to cut through the rhetoric and the skepticism. But it seems now that the truth may not be good enough. Claire and I may not be good enough.
Claire steps forward so she’s only a couple of feet away from Abby. “Abigail, can I show you something? Before you leave and before you decide this visit was a mistake, there’s something I’d like to show you.”
Abby hesitates for a moment, glancing up at Caleb, seeking his opinion on Claire’s request. Caleb shrugs, and for a moment I fear she’s going to tell us she has to leave. Then she nods and I let out a huge sigh.
As expected, Claire slides her cell phone out of the pocket of her jeans and begins swiping her finger across the screen, searching for something. Finally, she stops swiping and she seems transfixed by something on her phone. She takes another step forward and holds it up for Abby to get a better view.
“That’s me when I was nineteen and five months pregnant with you. I didn’t know my best friend was taking this picture of me. I was lying on the bed in her room, rubbing my belly as I talked to you.” She draws in a stuttered breath as she tries to compose herself. “I was promising you that you’d have a better childhood than I did. That you’d never question whether your parents loved you, like I did.”
She swipes her finger across the screen again and the photo changes.
“This is a picture you may have already seen,” she continues. “This is the first time I held you. You were seven months old and this was the happiest and saddest moment of my life.” Claire holds the phone still for a moment before she tucks it into the back pocket of her jeans and steps forward so she’s within arm’s reach of Abby. “I’ve wanted you from the moment I found out I was pregnant. There was never, ever a moment where I felt my life was better without you.” She reaches forward and Abby allows her to take her hand. “We’ve been waiting so long to see you, to tell you that we never forgot you. Please stay a while so we can prove it to you.”
Abby draws in a deep breath and stares at the floor for a moment before she responds. “How long is a while?”
My heart stutters a bit then pounds wildly. “As long as you want,” I reply quickly. “Stay a few hours. Stay the night. Stay—”
“Stay for the summer,” Claire interjects and Abby looks up from the floor, her beautiful brown eyes wide with shock.
“The summer?”
I almost want to be angry with Claire for suggesting something so crazy, but the look on Abby’s face is telling me that this might not be as crazy an idea as I thought.
“Yes, the summer,” Claire continues. “We’re headed to our beach house in Wrightsville soon and we’d love for you to spend some time with us there… before you go to college. I mean, if that’s what you’re planning to do. I’m not trying to be presumptuous.”