Rilla found herself rushing to get to Kenzie's gymnastic program, she was out of as she settled down onto one of the bleachers. She fixed herself up and took a long drink from her water bottle as another parent came and sat down next to her.

"It always feels like we're racing against time doesn't it?" Gertie, a fellow parent who Rilla befriended the past year.

"I swear it never stops," Rilla says checking over her blouse to make sure none of the buttons popped in her rush.

Her high-waisted pencil skirt and white Oxford shirt were today's choice of attire for work. An pair of dark green high heels that she spent a bit more than she was willing to admit on if anyone asked about. She shouldn't be ashamed, she had a good job and Kenzie was well taken care of.

"Mom watch me!" Kenzie calls out waving in her bright blue leotard.

"I am!" Rilla calls back to her and proceeds to watch her daughter do some tricks on the balance beam. Gymnastics and circus school were Kenzie's choices of after-school fun.

"What are you doing for the summer any vacation plans?" Gertie asks as it was nearing the end of school.

"We have two weeks out at the island like usual. So my parents and family can see her," Rilla tells her. "And I can have some time to catch up reading and spending time at the ocean."

"Do you ever think about moving back?" Gertie asks making conversation.

"Not really, I came to Ontario for college and fell in love with the variety of the city. The island is nice but it doesn't have the same things that are available the Kenzie likes. More schools to choose from and more extracurricular things for her, and I wasn't the youngest mother in her class either," Rilla laughs.

"How old were you when you have Kenzie? I've always been a bit too shy to ask?" Gertie says taking the opening.

"I was nineteen, freshly nineteen. I was foolish and a bit too green? She was almost born on my birthday, but ended up taking her own sweet time and waited until the wee hours of the morning before deciding it was safe to come out." Rilla finds herself explaining. "God I had no idea what was going on and happening. Mom was there with me and Dad who tried to explain things as I yelled at him." Rilla laughs at the memory. "I stayed with them for the first three years of her life taking a law secretary course and working part-time. Then I moved back to good old London Ontario."

"Her father was never in the picture?"

"This is where foolish and green comes into play," Rilla says quietly. "I don't know who he is. No one at the party knew him, and I snuck out from where he was staying in the morning. I didn't think, I just left without a world."

"And low and behold a few weeks later," Gertie says knowingly.

"Oh, I wish it was a few weeks earlier. Again foolish, by the time I even considered such a thing I was four months along." Rilla explains, "She's one of the best thing to happen to me though."

"We always say that when they are behaving themselves," Gertie says laughing and Rilla joins in.

They gather up their kids and gym bags to get them home in time for bath time and bedtime snacks. Rilla sighed with relief as she kicked off her heels and ushered her daughter into the shower.

Her little apartment was the top floor of some old victorian home. She loved it and it worked well for her and Kenzie. She opened her laptop with a glass of wine to unwind. Deciding to look online for some new school clothes for Kenzie, she was growing up faster than anticipated.

Then it happened. Her email loaded up new mail, and in a brief flash, it said that she had a new message.

A message.

She took a large gulp from her wine and opened her email fully.

KFORD82 sent you a message.

Holy Fudgisciles.

She grasps for her phone and dials the first of her siblings that she can find.

"Di, He wrote back, I think he wrote back," She says into the phone moment someone picks up.

"What? What's going on Rill?" Her sister Di's voice comes over the line. "One second though, Tancy you better get your butt back into bed," she shouts. "Sorry someone is refusing bedtime. Who wrote back?"

"The mystery man who shares half of my child's DNA, at least I think it's him? Someone messaged me on the site, at well, before lunchtime. I don't have that email hooked up on my phone so I just saw it now." Rilla explains to her sister.

"Well, what does it say?" Di says impatiently.

"I don't know I haven't opened it yet," Rilla says suddenly afraid. "What if it says he doesn't care and that to never contact him again?"

"Then you move on again and stop worrying what other people think," Di says simply. "And when Kenzie is older you can explain the story to her."

"Okay," Rilla says taking a deep breath. Clicking the message and it opens far too quickly for her liking.

"So?"

"He apologizing about his late reply, that his sister just alerted him to the situation. But he was at a Halloween party back in 2006 and told me to call him and he gave me his number."

"His sister alerted him?"Di says skeptically? "Or he got found out?"

"I don't know but if his sister signed up," Rilla says clicking on the top bar of family. "There is a DNA match that says Paternal Aunt now."

"More family!" Di exclaims. "So are you going to call him?"

"It's 8:30 pm," Rilla says. "I'll send a message telling him I will call tomorrow."

"Fair enough," Di concludes. "I don't hear typing though."

"Oh my god, give me a moment," Rilla says rolling her eyes and grabbing her headphones so she can put her phone down and type at the same time. "There, I told him I received his message and will call him tomorrow, and asks if there is any time that is best for him," Rilla tells her sister.

"Good, are you going to tell Mom and Gil about this?" Di asks curiously.

"No, not until if I know it's worth telling," Rilla says sighing. "I rather not have a repeat experience of that conversation with mom and dad."

"You know Mom doesn't really care," Di reminds her sister. "No one does, Kenzie is loved enough by all of us to cancel that out."

"I know, it just feels like I came to peace with it and suddenly this just came out of nowhere," Rilla says sighing as she hears a small ping. "Holy fuck, he just replied."

"Read it!" Di urges.

"He says he's free anytime in the afternoon, I'll ask to take a late lunch," Rilla says chewing her lip.

"Mom, can you braid my hair for me?" Kenzie shouts from the bathroom.

"I gotta go, I'll keep you posted," Rilla says before saying goodnight. She set aside her wine and shut her laptop.

"I'll be right there," she calls out.

The morning went by too fast on a day that she wanted to go slow. She steps out to her favourite park near work with lunch and she stares at the number before taking a deep breath and hitting the call button.

It was a Toronto number, so he must live in Toronto now she deduced.

Three rings, then four.

Then it connects.

"Captain Ford," his voice filters through.

A captain!

"Hi, this is Rilla Blythe, umm, not sure how to do this." She says chewing her lip.

"It's all right, I feel the same way," His voice sounds well-rehearsed and practiced as if he needed to be calm and collected in times of crisis. "Let's just start with the basics?"

"You were at a Halloween party in 2006, at western university?" Rilla asked.

"I was, I came with friends. I was dressed in old boot camp clothing," he confirmed.

"I was Tinkerbell, with red hair," Rilla tells him. "I have a photo of you, but it is a bit blurry."

"You left really early?" he says for them meaning the next morning.

"I did I woke up and thought that was what you did? One too many teen movies? Or incredibly naive, either way, the transition into college was a lot more stressful and emotional than I ever thought it might be?"

"How old are you, were you?" he asks suddenly hoping her birthday was before September."

"I was 18, don't worry about that," she tells him hurriedly. "You?"

"I was 23 at the time, almost 24?" he admits. "I asked around but no one knew you,"

"The same," Rilla says quietly. "Look I know this is weird, but we can obviously get a proper test done. Where ever you want to get it done of course. I'm sure this has been nothing but a shock to you to find out. But there is little point of getting into this if Ancestry made a mistake or something?"

"Of course, it makes sense, though the odds of being a mistake are less one might believe if it connected my sister to your?" He agreed.

"Daughter," Rilla tells him quietly. "I had a daughter."

"Right," he says as if he trying to show too much because there was still too many variables. "Where do you live? I noticed a southern Ontario number?"

"I'm still in London," Rilla tells him. "You're in Toronto?"

"I am, we should meet up and talk about this in person, I can come to London in the afternoon and we can talk?" He says. "You can bring someone if you wish to feel safer?"

"We probably should?" Rilla finds herself agreeing. "Let me know what your schedule is like and I can figure it out?"

"I don't want you to miss work, just whenever you are available I can make it work," he responds.

"Alright, can I text you the details?" Rilla says.

"Of course."

"Right, so text, uh, for the details," Rilla stammers, realizing she still didn't have his name.

"Kenneth, my name is Kenneth Ford, but you can just call me Ken," He tells her.

At twenty-eight, Rilla Blythe didn't think this day would ever come, but suddenly ever so suddenly it did.