Chapter 5: The Conclusion

I took off work early Friday to go home and speak with Mrs. Amore. I knew it would be awkward but I had to know for sure. How could I just go up to Mary and ask her for a DNA test. I knew Mrs. Amore would tell me the truth; after all, it affects her daughter as much as me.

I knocked on the Amore's door and Vivian opened it smiling at me.

"Hi, John. It's so nice to see you. Please come in. Mary's still at the clinic. She won't be home for a few hours. What's the matter, John? You seem almost in distress. Is there a problem? Are you alright?"

"Mrs Amore, I love Mary and want to ask her to marry me this weekend but I have a gigantic problem and have to ask you something very personal. It's about Mary's father."

Vivian smiled, "Vic loves you, John. He was hoping the two of you would get together. He'll be so happy to hear this."

"Vivian, I mean Mrs. Amore, I don't know a good way to ask you this. Is there any way possible that Joe Jackson could be Mary's biological father?"

Vivian brought her hands up to her face. "Oh, my God, how do you know that evil man?" She was now crying.

"Joe Jackson was my sperm donor dad. He left Mom and me shortly after I was born. Very few people know about it. I saw him in Columbus yesterday and he told me he might be Mary's biological dad and our kids might have deformities."

"I can't lie to you, John. I was intimate with Joe many, many years ago. I don't know if he is Mary's biological father or not. It was so many years ago and I was a single girl. Please don't tell Mary, John. Besides, we don't know for sure and it would hurt Vic if after all these years he would have to take a test. Maybe there is some other way we can figure it out, John. Please don't mention it to Mary yet... It would break her heart."

"Mrs. Amore, the last thing I would want to do is hurt Mary in anyway. If that bastard Joe is her sperm donor, then we can't take a chance of having kids. I would have to find a way to explain it to her. I would even have a vasectomy before I would hurt Mary. I need to talk to Mom and Dad and see if they have any suggestions. Damn that bastard, Joe."

Vivian, had tears in her eyes when I left. I stopped and had a drink before going home. I needed something to calm me down. The woman I loved could be my half sister. What could I do, what could I do?

I pulled up to Mom's house and she was waiting for me at the door. She could tell that I had been crying.

"Everything will be alright, Johnny. Vivian just called me and everything will be all right."

"How, Mom? How is everything alright? I love Mary so much and I want to marry her. Now that bastard Joe says he might have fathered Mary. What can I do, Mom, without Mary knowing all this. It would hurt her so much."

"Johnny, come and sit here on the couch with me. We have to talk. Art will be here to join us in a minute."

"What's this all about, Mom? How will this tell us who Mary's birth father is?"

"It doesn't make any difference who's Mary's birth father is. You see, Joe was never really your father. Yes, we were married but he never impregnated me, so he was never the so-called sperm donor for you."

"If Joe was never my father, then who was, Mom?"

At that moment, Art walked into the room. "I'm your father, John. You are my son, both biologically and adopted. I think we owe you a big explanation."

"I don't understand. Why did you adopt me if you were my father in the first place?"

My mom looked at me and began the explanation.

"Joe and Art were in the army together. When they got out of the service, I was dating Joe. Eventually he asked me to marry him and I did. I was young then and really wasn't thinking. Joe was a good looking guy and, before he went in the service, we went out a few times and got along fine.

"After we got married, he changed. He seemed bitter at the world. He started staying out late and drinking a lot. I found out that he was having affairs. I didn't know any of the women. It really hurt that he would do this to me."

Art said, "Joe was my best friend at one time. In fact I was the best man at his and your mom's wedding. I opened the sporting good store and Joe was selling farm implements. We hung out together once in awhile. I saw that he was cheating on Lucille, your mom. It really pissed me off; you see I had a crush on her too. I didn't go after her since she was Joe's woman. One day Joe told me he was going to Columbus and wouldn't be home that night because he had a heavy date. I asked him, 'What about Lucy?' and he just laughed at me and said, 'What she doesn't know won't hurt her.'

"I went to see Lucy that night and she told me she knew Joe was cheating on her with a number of women and she started crying. I loved your mom so I held her gently while she cried. I told her how much I cared for her and one thing lead to another and we made love. We both felt bad about doing it under those circumstances and vowed never to do it again. We said we would never see each other alone so it wouldn't happen again."

Mom took over where Art left off. "When your dad, I mean Joe, came home I tried to make it up to him. He didn't have any idea why I tried to make love to him. He just thought he was good at sex. When he found out I was pregnant, he got pissed off. He said he wasn't ready for any damned kids. He stopped making love to me. He said he didn't want to have sex with a fat pregnant woman."

Mom started crying and Art put his arm around her to help calm her down. I just sat there listening to their explanation.

Art began again, "I told your mom to divorce the son of a bitch and marry me. She said she wanted to try and make it work for your sake, the sake of the baby. After you were born, Joe didn't get any better. He and I broke it off as best friends and he headed out into a world of partying and drinking."

Mom regained her composure and continued explaining, "You were only a couple of months old when Joe came home, what I thought was drunk. Instead he was on crack, the drug. I told him to get the hell out of my house or I would call the police on him. I wasn't going to have a crack addict around my son. To make a long story short, he left and we got divorced. He never sent me any money to help support you, so I asked Art for a job and he did more than just give me a job. He married me.

"He went to Columbus to find Joe and had him sign papers to give up his rights to you. He told Joe if he didn't that he would turn him in for non-support. Of course Joe was glad to rid himself of me and you. He was now totally free to do his thing. Art put in adoption papers to adopt you and had your name changed to Davis. He raised you as his own. We never looked back."

I had tears in my eyes, I loved Art as much as any kid loved his dad. "How did you know you were my dad Art."

"We found out a few years later after all the paper work was done," Mom explained. "When you were around three years old, you became sick. You became jaundiced and diagnosed with Biliary Atresia. It's a rare condition that causes the liver to destroy itself. The doctors said you needed a liver transplant. They looked for weeks and couldn't find a matching donor. Unfortunately, another child would have to die in order for you to have their liver. The only other option was to find a matching donor, an adult and they could remove a part of an adult liver and you could survive.

"We had a few people over to get checked to see if there would be a match. Of course I was, I was your mother but I was pregnant with your sister at the time and there was no way I could donate a part of my liver or the baby would die. Art thought about Joe and figured he'd find him and make him give part of his liver. Only problem was Joe's liver was half shot. He was a drug addict and a drunk. We were praying for help when the doctor came in and said they found a match. I asked who it was and he said Art was a perfect match. Art had gone and got tested hoping he could help. Art saved your life, Johnny."

"I would have done it even if he wasn't my son. In fact that's when the doctors told me that it's good I wasn't a heavy drinker. He thought I was your dad all the time. I never told the doctor that I adopted you," Art replied.