Winning her back

27. The Truth (Part 1)

Lisa

I hated travelling. As a kid, I hated taking planes, boat rides, and our yearly caravan trips. It was partly cause of motion sickness, but mostly cause I hated being away from home. Our trips were always centered around meeting different pastors or visiting various churches. Wasn't the summer vacation a ten year old dreamed of. I remember always dreading the holidays, cause it always meant we'd have to go on another trip.

So being in a car for almost three hours wasn't the most delightful way to start the day. The roads were busy, and the knot in my stomach seemed to tighten as the time went by. Travelling to visit a church or meet a few pastors seemed much more appealing than what I intended to do.

Luckily enough, Clark managed to give me access to all the birth certificates in a 20 mile radius. I narrowed it down to the last two years and filtered the age group. Turns out, there were only two Torvi Dunn's registered birth dates, with only one of them listing the father as unknown.

For someone who wanted to get off the grid, she didn't really do a good job at it. Registering an address on her hospital ID wasn't the smartest idea.

I knew it was a long shot. It may have been a temporary address, or even a fake one. I didn't let myself contemplate all the possibilities before asking Raoul to take me there. He was kind enough not to ask any questions, even though it was obvious that our trip wasn't work related.

Mt thoughts took me back to the last conversation I had with Clark. I thought him being married was the only secret he failed to share. Little did I know he was about the drop another bombshell on me.

"I'm so sorry Clark. Nobody should have to go through that", I said, hoping I didn't push him too far.

"It's been a long time now. As the saying goes, time heals pain".

"I can't help but wonder if that's what inspired you to start the IVF program here?"

I saw him raise his eyebrows . "Inspired me?", he questioned.

"Well yeah, did your infertility encourage you to give women the opportunity to be able to conceive?".

His lack of emotion made it harder for me to perceive what was going through his mind.

"I don't think you understand Lisa, I'm not infertile".

I remained silent and signaled for him to continue.

"Margaret, my ex wife, knew from the day she met me that I wasn't keen on the idea of kids. However, she thought it was because I was young, and that after we were married things would change".

"Clark -

"Except nothing changed. I didn't want kids back then, I don't want kids now".

He emphasized the last part of the sentence, making sure he looked at me as the words rolled off his tongue.

"Do you understand what I'm trying to say?", he asked.

I nodded in silence and reverted to looking back at the cars in the lane parallel to us.

The ride home was silent and uncomfortable, it had me wish I never brought up the topic in the first place.

"Ms Dunn, we're here", said Raoul, bringing me back to the present.

"What? Already?", I replied.