Read Online Finding Their Son by Debra Salonen - Free Book Online

involved other human beings?
    He used the big, fluffy, chocolate-colored towel that was hanging beside the shower to dry off, then he wiped the condensation from the mirror and looked at himself. Haggard. Worn down. Defeated. The way his father had looked the entire time Eli had known him.
    With his hands pressed flat against the countertop on either side of the sink, he leaned heavily on his arms. For the past six months his life had been spiraling downward like a jet plane in free fall. He’d fueled the propulsion with anger and self-pity.
    “Enough,” he said, looking himself in the eye. “Enough.”
    He shaved and brushed his teeth using the disposable razor and new toothbrush Char had provided. A thick, white terry-cloth robe—the kind you could pick up at fancy hotels—was hanging from a hook behind the door. He put it on and knotted the belt at his waist.
    He ran his fingers over the insignia on the breast pocket but he didn’t recognize the chain. No surprise there. Other than Disney World and a few family-friendly motels between Lower Brule and Enid, Oklahoma, Eli didn’t have a lot hotel experience.
    Was Char a world traveler, he wondered, stuffing his hands in the side pockets?
    Char. A virtual stranger with a secret connection to him he still wasn’t certain he believed. And he’d kissed her. Forno logical reason. Was he hoping to prompt some clear memory? Or was his action plain old lust?
    Lord knew he hadn’t been with a woman for months. He couldn’t remember the last time he and Bobbi had made love. In hindsight, he wondered if she’d suspected what the results of E.J.’s DNA test would reveal. Maybe she’d been preparing herself—and him—by squeezing him out of her life.
    He closed the lid of the toilet and sat, stalling. If what Charlene wrote was true, his life was about to change in ways he probably couldn’t imagine. Another kid? A hidden child he’d never heard about? A boy child, he gathered. His real kid. Maybe. Unless Char was as gifted a liar as Bobbi.
    He closed his eyes and rested his chin on the heel of his hand. His lips twitched as he pictured himself assuming the pose of that famous sculpture— The Thinker . He wasn’t. Obviously. If he’d thought more and screwed around less, maybe he wouldn’t be in this situation. Either of these situations.
    No, Bobbi was the thinker in the family. Her animal totem was the fox, and all the standard appellations applied. She’d cleverly plotted and manipulated and got her way from that spring day their senior year of high school when she broke the news that she was pregnant.
    Eli had known for a long time that she wanted him to marry her, but he’d had other plans. And even though he’d been the one to insist on always using a condom when they fooled around, she’d wound up pregnant.
    “Rubbers aren’t perfect, Eli,” she’d told him, sobbing in a way that reminded him of his mother at the end of her life when the pain was so bad. Bobbi had even backed upthe claim with some statistics she’d gotten from the health teacher.
    He’d accepted what she told him at face value. Why wouldn’t he? He wasn’t the most egotistical guy around, but he knew girls liked him. More than a few had thrown themselves at him over the years. It never once crossed his mind that Bobbi might have been screwing some other guy at the same time. Especially Eli’s cousin—and best friend—Robert.
    That old infidelity might have hurt but it wouldn’t have been enough to cause Eli’s whole life to implode, if it hadn’t been for the DNA test E.J. had asked him to take. Eli had never really understood the reason behind the test. All he knew was the end result. “We share a bunch of the same genetic markers, Dad, but there’s a ninety-five percent probability you’re not my father,” E.J. told him.
    The printout was like a W.M.D.—it blew the roof off their fairly happy home and sent the survivors spinning off in every direction. Bobbi took the