Get your own Free Home Page***RECAP: Lauren bit her lip as her eyes glazed over with tears. "I'm your daughter," she finally said.***
Roberts eyes got wide, as he grabbed onto the doorpost for support. "You're my.....my...what?" he stuttered, his eyes shifting from left to right.
"I'm your daughter," she answered, her voice quavering, "Joan is my mother."
Robert was speechless. He clasped his hands together, as all he could whisper was, "Oh my God..."
Lauren didn't know what to do either. She just stood there, shaking, tears forming in her eyes. Here he was, her father, the man who had partly created her, and all she could do was cry. The tears started flowing down her cheeks as she blubbered, "I'm...I'm sorry......I didn't mean to come and scare you..."
"No...no....it's okay....that just shocked me...I'm still a little shaken up...do you wanna come in?" he finally was able to say. Lauren nodded and entered the house. It was quaint, with pictures all over the place and nice furniture all over the various rooms. It was also kinda awkward, as the both sat down on the couch in the living room in complete silence.
"I'm really sorry to come here and disturb you like this, but I came all the way from Toronto where me and my mom live now, so..." she started, hoping that he wouldn't hold it against her.
"It's okay," he said again, moving next to her on the couch. "I'm Lauren, by the way," she added. "Hi Lauren," he said softly, and then said, "Oh God.... I can't believe you're here...honestly I never thought I'd ever see or hear from you again...God, I think about you every day."
Lauren smiled and looked down. "My mom told me about you only about a week ago...until then I never knew who you were, but I thought it might be good if I found out," she said.
"How old are you?" he asked, trying to do calculations in his head. "I'm twenty...almost twenty-one," she answered, studying her father's face. It made her realize how she could have ever thought that this man wasn't the right Robert she was looking for. His eyes matched Lauren's almost identically, and some features were so similar...some of the things that Lauren had wondered about before; why hers differed from her mom's. Now it was all becoming clear.
"Wow...." he muttered, "Twenty years old....you're almost the same age as my son."
That moment was the very point when Lauren noticed exactly who was in all the pictures around the house. There were pictures of this boy as a baby, and most recently as a teenager. Robert noticed Lauren looking at the pictures, and said, "Yeah...that's him....that's my son...he's nineteen now."
"Your son," Lauren repeated, "my half-brother."
Lauren hadn't even taken into account the fact that Robert might have remarried and had other children, but now it was finally hitting home. "Yeah," Robert said sheepishly, "his name's Alexander James....but everyone calls him AJ."
"AJ," Lauren repeated, picking up the framed picture. This particular picture looked like a school picture, and AJ looked about fourteen. This was all going a little too fast for Lauren; a week ago she only had her mom, now she had a dad AND a brother.
"Does he live with you?" Lauren asked, still staring at the picture, noting the remarkable similarities between her and AJ. "No," answered Robert, shaking his head, "when he was four, his mom, Denise, and I got divorced...I don't see him much at all.....these pictures are really all I've got."
She continued to stare blankly at the picture. 'My brother,' she kept saying in her head. "I've always wanted a brother," she said out loud, putting the picture down and looking at her father. Robert nodded and smiled, "I'll give you his address and phone number.....but you just have to promise that you wont give it out to anybody."
"Why not?" asked Lauren, totally confused.
"Because," answered Robert, "there are just some people out there who would want to get their hands on his number."
"Why? I don't understand....." she began, just as her eyes drifted over to a framed article. "BACKSTREET BOYS BREAKING OUT ALL OVER THE WORLD" it read, with a picture of a group of five boys, one which definitely was AJ.
"Backstreet Boys?" she asked, even more confused, "where have I heard that before?"
"AJ is part of a singing group called the Backstreet Boys....they're quite popular in Canada, so I figured you would have heard of them," her dad answered, smiling proudly.
Lauren nodded, taking all of this in. It was getting to be all too much, but one thing she knew was she had to meet AJ.
Lauren and Robert talked for a while longer, and then Lauren said she had to go. She called a cab to his house and stood by the front door waiting. "Lauren, I...." started her dad, as he stood waiting with her, "I....just wanna say that I'm really glad you decided to come today...and that I'm really sorry about whatever hardships this whole ordeal has put you through....I never wanted you to grow up without a father, but it kinda just happened that way....for the last twenty years I've though numerous times about tracking you down, but I figured it would be better if we kept our distance..."
She smiled. "Thanks....that means a lot to me," she said, hesitant on what to call him. It sounded weird calling him Robert, but it sounded even weirder calling him Dad.
As if reading her mind, Robert answered with, "I know it must be awkward, but I'd love it more than anything in the world if you could call me Dad....I know we just met 20 minutes ago, but it'd just mean so much."
Lauren smiled as those same tears glazed over her eyes, as she said, "Okay Dad."
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