A Forbidden Love Ch. 07

Hearing the story, from her view, brought back very vivid memories. “It wasn’t exactly like we planned it. I had any number of girls throwing themselves at me, and I never slept with anyone before Rene, so it was something very special. That night was more special because she’d never been with anyone either. It was magical, but before we took those steps, we did discuss it. It wasn’t the heat of passion, it was a serious discussion of the consequences, but in the end, we’d agreed to enter this blessed state.” She smiled softly to me as she sat back down in my arms.

Seeing a happy couple instead of just siblings, Ken smiled and grasped his wife’s hand. Even our mother’s sister let go of her feelings, seeing something special between us. “Apparently, you’ve thought about this better than anyone else. I wish, I sincerely wish, you two could marry, as happy as you look, but you know you can’t.”

“Well, no, there might be a way. Don’t suppose you’ve got your birth certificates handy?”

“No,” I answered. “Mom mentioned they were in some lock box somewhere.” Only then did it dawn on me what the key in the envelope might unlock. “Then again, I might just hold the key to the answer. But why would those be important?”

Shaking his head quickly, Ken continued. “Maybe he was just joking all those years ago, but your dad once said that the names on the birth certificate didn’t have the same last name on them. He even said the parent’s names were different, though I really thought he was just pulling my leg, like he usually did.”

“Why would he even say something like that though?” Rene chimed in.

Instead of our uncle, Jenny, with a look of understanding, said, “Because, when you two were born, they were separated and the divorce was almost finalized. They even decided to split custody of you two. Now it makes sense. Technically, under the law, you two aren’t related, if those certificates weren’t changed.” She looked at Melissa and Ken. “Sharon never mentioned it to me about whether they’d been changed or not once they got back together, but its possible they couldn’t.”

The news, while stunning, did give me some hope. My hand reached into the pocket holding the key, drawing it out. “This might be the answer. But I wonder why they never mentioned it to us.”

“Do you know where that one is?” Ken asked.

“Yeah, I’ll go get ‘em,” Rene answered as she jumped up, pulling me with her towards the house. While she searched dad’s study, I just watched her. She pulled out a folder from dad’s filing cabinet, then pulled out the sheets of paper. We studied them together, only then realizing we’d never looked closely enough at the certificates. Mine did indeed claim mom as my mother and dad as my father. Suprising us further, we found two certificates for Rene, along with a note attached to one. The note said simply, “Revised birth certificate,” in blue ink and looked identical to mine except for her name, the second, and older, one left the parent’s names blank, with only Rene, no last name given.

“Now that’s interesting,” my voice stated while I studied the certificates. “Does that mean we’re not even related?”

Her finger tapped at the birth date and the time. “If we aren’t, it’s a pretty big coincidence we were born in the same hospital only two minutes apart.” She smiled at me, having the same thought. “But we could use that. How would anyone know, considering the evidence? No mother, no father, nothing except a time and day and a first name. Even the doctors are different.”

We returned to the rec room to listen in. From the bits and pieces I pieced together, mom and dad got back together only a week after our birth, but when they did the certificates, they’d done them thinking they’d be going their separate ways. Strange the way things turn out.

After looking over the birth certificates, Ken decided to check into it further the next day while I went to the bank. With everything decided, it came time to retire to bed. It certainly had been a long day, and it’d be the first time in a couple days we could sleep together maybe without Kaitlyn waking us.

* * * * *

After Melissa took our sister off our hands for awhile, and Rene and I had some much needed time alone which we used very eagerly, I got out of the house, running to the bank on the note. I sat for most of my time in a conference room until finally someone brought me the box. Opening a much larger box than I’d expected, it contained several small boxes containing what I found out later were very old and valuable coins, a few pieces of jewelry meant for my sister, another box containing another five safety deposit keys (guess dad wanted to be safer than sorry), and a large vanilla envelope.

While I waited on the other five boxes, thankfully smaller than the first, I opened the envelope, finding several file folders, but a lone letter caught my attention first. It explained a lot more than I thought anything could. Addressed to his kids, from the letter, dad had expected to tell us about the birth certificates but reading the letter, he must not have gotten the chance. He went on to write that yes, mom and dad did separate for awhile, deciding to each take one of us before they got back together. Mom wanted to take me, while dad would “adopt” Rene, since he was with someone else at the time. When they got back together, the birth certificates had just gone in, complete with “single birth” checked on each. Dad tried to get it changed later, but he ended up having to resubmit Rene’s, though with single birth on it, as if he and mom had adopted her. While Rene, the letter said, was my birth sister, legally, she was considered adopted, with no known blood relation. The packet contained tons of legal stuff, all adoption papers and such. I glanced through, and officially, it listed Rene as “abandoned” at the time on the certificate. Convenient.

Once I’d gone through the boxes, I returned home and gave up the findings to my uncle. He’d gone to get a copy of the official birth certificate, with the very same information on the first birth certificate, a blank in the parents spaces. He did mention something about an adoption and going through the packet, he understood. Things couldn’t have been better for us.

But things weren’t finished, not by Aunt Jenny’s standards. The baby, she said, needed a proper home to be born into, and she insisted on that adamantly. “You two will go through the next month of school, graduate, then get married. As your mother’s only living family, I’ll make sure to prepare everything back in California for it.”

Since everything came out, Rene and I didn’t try hiding our feelings from the family, only incensing Zack, who carefully avoided me that day. Probably better for him, since I still wanted to talk to him about how he looked at Rene. But, holding each other, we shook our heads no to the plans, stopping the conversation. “We’ve lived on this farm all our lives, and this is where we finally became a couple. It’s only right we get married here, too.”

The look went between them without moving to us. “You don’t want to do it here, not in this state. At least another state would be better,” came the answer, spoken by Melissa but echoed by the other two. “How about our house in Rhode Island? It’s right on the beach and everything. It’d be very romantic.”

The thought of a romantic wedding on the beach did appeal, and it certainly wouldn’t attract unwanted attention as much as one on the farm. We agreed and began making more plans.