“It’s all set,” Mattheus replied.
“Mattheus, Mattheus,” Cindy threw her arms around him.
“I know, I know,” he replied quietly, putting his arms back around her. “When I heard that Lynch was going to see his son, I knew immediately how much that would mean to you. And then I thought about myself and Andrea.”
“Your daughter’s name is Andrea?” Cindy whispered.
“Right,” Mattheus went on. “I finally saw how right you were. There’s no way we could go forward in our relationship and get engaged without our both meeting her.”
Cindy shook her head back and forth unbelievingly. Dreams did come true, prayers were answered, she thought silently, people you cared about suddenly opened their eyes and grew ten feet tall. “I am so proud of you, Mattheus,” Cindy whispered.
“I knew you would be,” he smiled proudly, “I just knew it.
*
Both Cindy and Mattheus showered and changed before going to the Aupres Hotel, where they were to meet Andrea in the lobby, walk in the gardens, and then have dinner together in a beautiful restaurant at the foot of the hill, near a wild life sanctuary. Mattheus had left nothing unplanned.
Mattheus, silent in the taxi on the way over, held tightly onto Cindy’s hand.
“I know how hard this must be for you, Mattheus,” Cindy whispered, holding his hand just as tightly, giving him all the support she could.
“Hard’s not the right word for it,” he corrected her. “Terrifying is.”
It was rare for Mattheus to say anything at all was terrifying.
“I have actually never seen her,” he went on. “I have no idea what she’s like or what her mother told her about me.”
Cindy was nervous as well. “It’s amazing you were able to find her now,” she said.
“I’m just as amazed,” said Mattheus. “She still lives exactly where she was born in Anguilla, nearby.”
“She lives there with her mother?” Cindy asked.
“Seems so,” said Mattheus. “I called down there for her, and got hold of her easily - if she’s really my daughter?”
“If? You’re not sure?” Cindy was taken aback.
“When I called she picked up. First I asked for her mother and she said her mother wasn’t in. Then I asked for her mother’s daughter and without hesitating a second, she said it was her. I was really taken aback. She asked who was calling and I just said it was her father.”
“My God,” said Cindy, “she must have been shocked.”
“Oddly enough, she didn’t seem so shocked, just got very quiet. “What do you mean my father? she finally asked. I told her my name was Mattheus and I’d known her mother a long time ago. At that, she murmured strangely, as if she’d heard about who I was. At that point I went on quickly and asked what her name was, how old she was now.”
“It’s amazing she could talk at all,” said Cindy.
“She was fine,” Mattheus remarked. “She said her name was Andrea, that she’s fifteen now and had been waiting to hear from me a long time. That threw me for a loop. You’ve been waiting to hear from me?” I said to her.
Cindy shivered from head to toe. “She’s actually been waiting to hear from you? My God.”
“I can’t imagine why,” murmured Mattheus.
Cindy thought about it a second. “Everyone wants to know where they came from,” said Cindy. You two have the same genetic pool. And most parents want to see their biological children too, even if they’ve left them behind.”
“I didn’t leave her behind,” Mattheus bristled. “I was never with her mother at all after that night. I knew she got pregnant, but the child didn’t really register.”
“Didn’t you wonder if the mother might have lied to you about being the father? That she might have had other men?”
“Sure, I thought that in the beginning,” said Mattheus, “but then I found out that the baby was born nine months to the day after that night.”
“How did you find that out if you had no more contact with her?” asked Cindy amazed.
“It gnawed at me in the beginning,” said Mattheus. “So I got a friend to check it out and find out when the kid was born. Then I sent the mother a nice chunk of money, in an envelope without a return address.”
New layers were appearing in Mattheus’s story. The baby had made an impact on him, if only for a short while. Cindy wondered what else was waiting to be revealed.
“I can’t get my mind around this, Cindy,” said Mattheus, growing edgy and taut.
“Who could?” said Cindy.
“I figured her mother had moved on, was married by now and that someone else had stepped in and taken the role of her father.” Mattheus spoke with great pressure in his voice.
“It’s easy to assume that,” said Cindy.
“Andrea said she’ll be standing in front of the reception desk in the lobby,” Mattheus continued, “and that she’s tall and beautiful.”