Glow (Glimmer and Glow #2)(65)

After the procedure was complete, Alice walked down the hallway in the direction of the waiting room clutching a patient informational pamphlet from a laboratory called GenCorp in Chicago, which would perform the genetic comparison analysis and provide her with results. According to what she’d briefly read as the phlebotomist had taken blood, she’d have the results in four to six weeks, but they were going to try to put a rush on it.

Where will I be when I get the results?

The question slammed into her like a fist to the head.

“Miss? Are you all right?”

Alice blinked, rising out of a daze. She realized she was standing still next to a parked wheelchair and a middle-aged nurse was watching her with a part-curious, part-concerned expression on her face.

“I . . . yeah, I’m fine,” Alice said hollowly. “I felt a little dizzy there for a second.”

“Did you just give blood?” the nurse asked kindly.

“Yeah.”

The nurse nodded. “Why don’t you go on back to the phlebotomist station and sit down. They have juice and cookies there.”

“No,” Alice said, smiling stiffly. “I’m fine. Thanks.”

She started down the hallway again. It hadn’t been the blood draw that had made her dizzy. It was the fact that Camp Durand finished in a week’s time, and she had no idea what the hell she was going to do with her life after it was over.

What if I’m not selected as a Durand manager? Should I go back to Maggie’s and start looking for another job? That was the original plan. But I can’t act like Addie Durand never existed, especially once I get the official testing results. What if I am selected as a manager? Wetting my feet as a Durand junior executive would be a good way to find my way in the company. In my life. But what if the position offered to me wasn’t in Morgantown?

What about Dylan?

What if Dylan was wrong, and I’m not actually Alan and Lynn Durand’s child?

Where the hell do I belong?

She continued her walk to the waiting room on rubbery legs, these questions and more crashing and colliding in her head, leaving her in a cloud of blank, numbing anxiety.

The waiting room was nearly empty except for an older man reading a newspaper. She glimpsed Dylan’s singular form in the far hallway. He was standing next to a bulletin board and talking to someone in hushed tones. Should she just sit down, and wait for his acquaintance to leave? she wondered nervously. She and Dylan weren’t supposed to making their connection public.

But then Dylan glanced around and saw her. He beckoned.

“Sidney, hello,” Alice said a second later when she rounded the corner and saw whom Dylan had been talking to. She took his extended hand and Sidney leaned down to briefly kiss her cheek. “What are you doing here?”

“I had to admit a patient, unfortunately, and I was on my way out when I saw Dylan.” He blinked and sobered. “Are you all right, Alice?”

“Yeah, I’m great,” she said too brightly and emphatically. Hearing the psychiatrist mention having to admit one of his patients into the hospital had pricked a nerve. Not that Alice really considered herself psych ward material. Still, she was keen to prove to the two men—and herself—that she was perfectly fine. “Did Dylan mention why we were here?” she asked, quieting her voice.

“Yes,” Sidney said. “Are you all set, then?”

Alice held up the pamphlet and put on her game face. “Yes. All that’s left to do is wait for official results.”

Sidney gave her a wry smile. “That’s only step one. Working through what step one really means to you is going to be the hard part. If only it were as simple as giving blood and getting an answer.”

“True,” Alice conceded. She glanced at Dylan uncertainly. “Did . . . did you tell him about what I remembered?” she asked softly.

“I did. I hope that’s all right,” Dylan said.

“It’s okay,” Alice assured.

“It sounds as if the memory of Lynn moved you very deeply,” Sidney said quietly.

Tears sprang into her eyes, surprising her. Something about Sidney’s kind, compassionate gray eyes that had done it. God, she was turning into a wreck. “It was,” she managed, her stiff smile quivering. “It was incredible.”

“Alice—”

“I think I’ll just run to the ladies’ room before we go?” she said in an unnaturally high-pitched voice, looking down the hallway and interrupting Dylan.

Dylan looked like he was about to halt her.

“There’s one right there,” Sidney said, pointing to a door twenty feet down the hall.

“Thanks. Right back,” she said with a smile that was completely at odds with her brimming eyes.


*

“YOU have to tell her, Dylan,” Sidney said quietly when the bathroom door shut behind Alice.

Dylan frowned. “You just saw her. She’s not ready for it. She likes to act like everything is fine, but she’s more fragile than she wants to admit.”

“I’m not so sure anymore. She’s not fragile by nature. Her defenses have been compromised due to all the psychological and emotional stress. But that doesn’t mean she won’t be able to take it, eventually. She has to be told sometime.”

“If she was ready to know, she’d ask. That’s what you’ve been preaching all along,” Dylan hissed. He glanced around warily, making sure no one was around. He and Sidney had had this conversation several times in the past few days, and it was getting more and more trying each time. “The truth about Sissy and her uncles came to her once she was ready . . . once she had that memory of Lynn to cling to. Now you expect me to taint that memory for her as well?”