WHO: Maia Sparks and NPC!Lilly Eriksson WHEN: Afternoon of November 9 WHERE: The restaurant of a hotel in Lakeland, FL SUMMARY: Maia meets her birth mother and gets some revelations. WARNINGS: Discussion of teenage pregnancy, adoption Â
Maia had planned many events in her years as an event coordinator. She'd planned weddings (her favorite) and birthdays, corporate events and town parties. One thing she had never planned before, though, was a reunion between biological mother and daughter. The notion of having to figure out the logistics of her own reunion? No, somehow it had never come up.
And yet, she'd had to do exactly that.
It hadn't been too difficult, when all was said and done. Maia wasn't sure if she was entirely comfortable going to Lilly Eriksson's home, so she had instead suggested the restaurant in the hotel that she and Wyatt were staying at for the weekend. It felt like more neutral ground, even if her own support system was only an elevator ride away; she'd insisted on the initial meet being just between herself and her biological mother, not wanting to overwhelm her no matter how much Maia would have appreciated Wyatt's steady support at her side. Maia had suggested meeting mid-afternoon, after most of the lunch crowd would have dispersed and before anyone looking for an early dinner might have wandered in. It might not be perfect privacy, but after asking for a table in a relatively removed corner of the dining area when Maia had arrived fifteen minutes early, she thought it would do.
Maia had arrived early in hopes that it would give her time to adjust and calm her storming emotions. Though she'd had weeks to prepare, it wasn't until she and Wyatt had checked into the hotel that it really hit Maia that this was happening. Not in the emails with the woman she was about to meet, conversations with the woman she actually called Mom, or the excuses made to Kylie as she packed her things. No, it had been actually arriving here that made it as clear as can be. Even the all too recent discovery of shared memories with Wyatt cold distract from it.
She knew that she could still back out of this if she wanted. Maia could march to the hotel room and tell Wyatt to help put their things back in their bags. They could be on an Uber before the woman would even arrive at the hotel. But, she wasn't going to do that. She had come this far to turn back now.
The waitress came to the table and Maia ordered a pitcher of lemonade (sugar free, of course) for the table, having no idea what the woman she was waiting on might want to drink or eat. Lemonade seemed safe, though.
Once the waitress had left, Maia almost missed her presence as she sat. She tried not to look too uncomfortable as she fidgeted, smoothing the front of her green dress as her eyes stayed fixed on the entrance, waiting.
The last several weeks had been filled with more introspection than she had allowed herself in quite some time. Lilly Erikkson had been a somewhat wayward young girl, and though she’d grown to become someone very different, she still remembered her youth with startling clarity. She had given birth to her first child at just sixteen. Even though she was in no way ready to be a mother, saying goodbye to her daughter had been one of the hardest things she’d ever done. She had known, however, that she could not provide for her daughter in the way that she would want to...in the way that Maia deserved. Her family would have nothing more to do with her if she kept her child, and Lilly had realized that the kindest thing she could really do for her daughter was give her the opportunity at a better life.
Just a few years later, she’d been in the same predicament all over again. It had been something of a nightmare, if she was honest. Despite having taken every precaution available to her at the time, she’d given birth to a second daughter at nineteen, just in the beginnings of her college career. She’d almost given in that time. She had almost kept her. Saying goodbye to a second daughter was like reliving the worst moment of her life all over again.
Those tiny lives that she loved so fiercely would stay with her throughout her adulthood, even if she hadn’t seen them past those first few hours. The accomplishments she made were strived for in hopes of making the sacrifices worth it. She pushed herself to become something - someone - better...so that she could tell herself this was the kind of parent her daughters would have deserved.
She'd had a lot of time to think about what a moment like this - meeting one of them - would be like. She'd wondered often if she had made the correct decisions all those years ago. Her life had been filled with grief that she was often told she was not allowed to express, and a thousand unanswered questions. Had her choices been to the benefit or the detriment of her daughters? This meeting was a way to hopefully answer that question for at least one of them.
Lilly’s husband had dropped her off at the hotel entrance with a kiss and a promise to be nearby. She’d been too nervous to drive herself. She had dressed in a sensible blouse and nice jeans, hoping that she looked approachable. As she entered the restaurant, her eyes scanned the sparsely occupied tables, but it took only a moment for her to spot her.
It was her. Lilly knew that with every fiber of her being...every cell in her body. She didn’t really know what she was allowed to call her. Daughter. Biological child. Just...Maia. She was a perfect blend of Lilly and her high school boyfriend, and she had grown into a beautiful woman. A somewhat nervous smile had ticked up on the corners of her lips, but this...this was foreign territory. She wasn’t certain how this was supposed to go, and it was much different than being able to agonize over every typed line in an email, “Maia? Hello...”
Maia knew it was her the moment she walked into the dining room. If it hadn't been for the hesitancy in her body language, it would have just as easily been from her appearance. Though it was clear from just looking at the woman that Maia had inherited her coloring from her father, she could pick out little parts of herself as Lilly approached the table that she had looked at in the mirror for thirty years that had obviously been passed down from her mother. They were answers to questions that Maia hadn't allowed herself to ask out loud -- and, really, had tried to suppress even in her mind.
Once Lilly reached the table, Maia stood, her calves pushing her chair back a bit at the movement. "Hi," she said, the word not any of the more inspired greetings that she had spent the morning practicing in her head. Maia returned Lilly's nervous smile with one of her own, hesitating as she tried to decide what to do next. Should she hug her? That felt too familiar. Shake her hand? No, this wasn't a business meeting.
In the end, she just forced a warmer smile through the nervousness, then gestured at the table and open chair. "I ordered some lemonade," she explained, glancing down at the pitcher. "It's sugar free, but there's packets over there if it's too tart. I'm sort of used to it by now, so it doesn't even phase me anymore, but I know it isn't the same for everyone." Maia stopped herself, then let out a breath of a laugh, looking back to Lilly. "I'm sorry," she apologized, before admitting, "I'm a little nervous."
She wanted this meeting to be on Maia’s terms. Lilly was ready to follow her lead. If it became too much, she really didn’t have any right to protest. She had, some years ago, come to terms with the idea that she would never have an opportunity to meet her children. This was an unexpected moment, and she was grateful for it. As much as she wanted to give Maia the answers that she sought, she needed answers, if not closure, herself.
Lilly stepped closer to the chair that was offered to her, though a flurry of questions popped up at the explanation of the lemonade. Why was it unsweetened and why was she used to such a thing? Did she just enjoy the tart flavor, or was there some other reason behind it? She pulled out the chair a little, and a small laugh that matched Maia’s escaped her as she nodded, “I’m nervous as well. A good nervous? I...well, even after you reached out, I still wasn’t sure if I’d ever really get to meet you. I’m glad that you came.” She swallowed a bit thickly, and finally did take the seat that was offered to her.
“I like lemonade,” she finally said with a deep, steadying breath. She poured a glass, took one sip of the tart beverage, and then did add just one single packet of sweetner to stir in, “If you prefer to start with...with questions you have for me, we can. I owe you that, and so much more.”
Maia sat as Lilly did, waiting as she saw to her lemonade. At her offering of Maia herself asking questions, she found herself hesitating to think for just a moment. She had plenty of questions for her, of course. She'd kept Wyatt up probably much later than she should have the night prior, going over them all with him. Even before this weekend, she'd been compiling them, both mentally and in an actual notebook she'd kept in her office. Though she didn't want to bombard Lilly with all of them, she still found it hard to not just dive in headfirst.
So, instead, she thought that she'd start from the beginning. "I do have questions," she started slowly, letting her hands fold daintily in front of her on the table. "I worked on having my adoption unsealed because of them. But, I think that I have far more now than I did before. At first it was just logistics, but now I want to know..." She paused, a smile brightening her face before she admitted, "Everything." It might have been more than she deserved to know, but she couldn't help saying as much.
"But," she continued, the smile fading slightly, "the reason I did it in the first place is because I have some health issues that my doctors have told me are generally hereditary. I have a daughter and while we've monitored things and she's so far seemed to have inherited her father's general health, I wasn't sure if there was anything more we ought to be looking for."
It surprised Lilly just how eager she was to answer whatever questions that Maia had - any and all of them. She had been harboring these words for so long. Her life had been built on the regrets she had from thirty years ago, and if she could put to rights at least a little bit of what had weighed on her shoulders for all these years, maybe they would both be satisfied, “I will tell you whatever you want to know.” It was a broad promise, perhaps, and some things may be more difficult than others to answer, but she wanted Maia to know that she was not going to hold back.
Her heart squeezed as Maia continued. Health issues? For a moment, her breath caught in some sense of fear that she did not know if she had any right to have. Then, the revelation that Maia herself was a mother, which made her...technically speaking, a grandmother. She probably had no rights to that title either, but her heart expanded a little at the knowledge anyway, “Oh...of course. Your father...Mateo. He’s a Type 1 Diabetic. He never let that slow him down for a single moment, but there were a few people in his family that had it. I told them that...the social worker that...um…” she cleared her throat, fidgeting a little before she took another calming breath, “We were both minors. I don’t know now if they weren’t allowed to include such information, or if maybe they just...didn’t think I knew what I was talking about.”
She shook her head softly and then added, “When I was a little older, I found out I have something called Celiac Disease. I can’t consume products that contain gluten without rather severe consequences. To my knowledge, there’s no history of any other severe health issues on either side. No cancers or dementia or cardiac scares. I...no longer have a close relationship with either of my parents, but last I saw them, they were in good health.”
Maia almost didn't hear anything after Mateo. The agency she'd worked with had been unable to confirm anything on her paternal side, having had only been able to make contact with Lilly to move forward and even initiate the potential for them to meet in the first place. Because of that, she hadn't known what her father's name was. Now she did. Mateo. But Maia knew that Lilly was answering her question and she pushed through the cloud that was created by the new piece of the puzzle that was her birth sliding into place. She focused, nodding along as Lilly confirmed her suspicions. Diabetes and celiac. Apparently she'd inherited a little of both of her biological parents, more so than in appearance.
"That... makes sense," Maia said, smiling as she was also relieved that there were most likely no more lingering diseases hiding in her genes. "They figured out I was celiac when I was really young, before I'd even been adopted. The diabetes was diagnosed later on, when I was thirteen. Kylie hasn't shown any symptoms of either, but she's only seven, so we're keeping an eye in case something develops later on."
It was a bit more information than Maia had planned on giving, but she was already finding it easy to talk to Lilly. There was no way she could forget who this woman actually was to her, but she was more comfortable as the minutes passed than she'd anticipated.
To hear that she’d inherited not just one, but both of the genetic markers that passed along those diseases tugged at Lilly’s heart. She knew that the care for Type 1 Diabetes could be expensive. The pump, if she had to have one, the insulin...if she had kept her, would she have been able to afford the medicine required to keep her healthy? It was senseless what-if question, but Lilly couldn’t help the way that it entered her mind anyway. She had obviously turned out to be a thriving young woman despite her medical diagnosis, “I hope, for your sake and hers, that she continues to live symptom free of either. I’m sorry that you inherited both...and that you didn’t have the answers as to why.” She didn’t feel that she really had a place to ask questions about Kylie, though now she was curious about her as well.
Now she couldn’t help her own thoughts from wandering. Did Oceana inherit the celiac disease as well? She’d had a different father, but had those genetics from Lilly been passed on to both of her daughters? Did Oceana have children, too? Did she look much like Maia? As babies, they’d had the same lips...the same fingers.
“I knew that there was a possibility that you would have children - a family - of your own. I don’t know if that makes it...easier or harder to understand the decisions I made.” She shook her head softly, a shaken breath on her lips, “But I do want to impress that it was not a decision made lightly. There hasn’t been a day pass since the moment I knew you existed that I haven’t thought about you, Maia. Not a day.”
Maia swallowed as Lilly's words registered in her mind. She didn't know if this was easier or harder than if the opposite had been the case -- if Lilly would have been aloof or wouldn't have wanted anything to do with her daughter that she'd put up for adoption. It was a relief in many ways to hear that it hadn't been an easy decision for her to have made. As nice as it was to hear, it didn't change anything with her adoptive family, the parents that had raised her and the brothers that she'd grown up alongside. But it did put a bit of a balm to her heart, just knowing that she hadn't necessarily been unwanted.
Looking down at her glass of lemonade for just a moment to collect her thoughts, Maia took in a breath before looking back up to Lilly. "I was young when I had Kylie. Not as young as -- I wasn't a minor, by any means, but I wasn't anticipating having a child at that age. I'd just started my career and her father and I weren't technically together at the time, though we'd known each other for years. I wasn't sure what I was going to do at first, if I was even ready for a baby. But, I did know that whatever decision I made, it had to be for her, to give her the best life and chance she could have."
Maia paused just a moment, tipping her head to the side a fraction. "Obviously we decided to keep her in the end and I know it was the right decision, but I think that my being confronted with that choice was what made me realize that it couldn't have been easy for you either, even if I didn't know you."
Lilly nodded along as Maia told her own journey to the decision she’d made that had resulted in keeping her own child. She was happy that she had, if only so that she would not be filled with the same questions that Lilly had been for so long. Finally, she admitted, “I was sixteen when you were born. Your father and I had been dating for nearly a year when I found out I was pregnant. We were young, and unprepared. I was a straight A student...on the academic team and the dance team. Even though I knew I wasn’t ready, the closer it got to having you, the less I wanted to give you up.” She picked up the glass of lemonade and gave it a small sip before she continued.
“I got to hold you...for just a little while. I knew that I couldn’t give you the best life. I was still in school, and I had no money. My parents would have turned their backs on the both of us. I knew that under dire circumstances, I could have done it...but I wanted better for you than what I was equipped for.” She stared down at the rim of her glass, and the condensation gathering on the sides, “I distanced myself from Mateo after that. He was relieved and optimistic for your future and ours, and I...was grieving in a way that he didn’t seem to understand. I was expected to just...go back to normal and pretend those nine months never happened, but you were out there somewhere.” She looked up, managing a small smile before she let out a steadying breath.
“If there was something else...potentially more answers for your medical search, or just...another piece to your puzzle, would you want to know?” She knew that the question in itself was likely to garner curiosity, but if Maia wanted to leave portions of this past buried, Lilly would not unnecessarily burden her with it.
Maia listened intently as Lilly spoke, taking in every detail about how she came to be with rapt attention. She had known that her biological parents had been young, but somehow hearing her confirm that she had only been sixteen seemed to resonate with her. To have to make a decision like the one she'd had to make at such a young age -- when Maia was sixteen, she was mostly just concerned with nursing her crush on Wyatt and whether or not her parents would let her borrow the family car to go the mall in the next town over.
At Lilly's question, Maia fell quiet for a moment as she considered. Her primary reason for coming was to talk about the health concerns, but that could have just as easily been done over email. At the end of the day, she knew that what she'd wanted to do was meet this woman and talk to learn about her. There were so many pieces to the puzzle missing, though, that she wasn't quite sure where to start.
"Can you -- could you just tell me about yourself?" Maia hedged, curiosity clear in her expression. "What are you doing now? Anything you want to tell me, I want to hear." And then, after a brief moment of consideration, she quickly added, "And if you have any questions for me, I can answer them as best I can."
Lilly had already decided that she would tell Maia whatever she wanted to know. Even opened up such as it was, there seemed to be at least a relatively clear path in what kinds of things were important to divulge. She nodded, and began first with, “I went to college. I’d always been interested in the medical field, but after my experiences...I went into pediatrics. I have my own practice here in Lakeland. I told myself that I needed to do something - be someone - really damn good to make my sacrifices worth it. I wanted to become someone that you could be proud of.”
She smiled, even if it was a little watery, and continued, “I didn’t marry until I was in my thirties. My husband, Weston, has two children from a previous relationship that I’ve been lucky enough to help raise. Jackson is nineteen, and Natalie just turned fourteen.” The question of whether or not she should mention Oceana hung heavy in her mind. Would Maia want to know about her sister? Would that just cause more heartache? Somehow, it felt that keeping it a secret would be the worst kind of lie.
“I have...a thousand questions for you. I do. Before I get to them, though...there is something else I think I need to tell you about. I sorted my life out, but it took time…” she shook her head softly, folding her hands nervously on the table. Her lip trembled, a waver making its way into her voice, “When I was in college, despite taking every precaution available to me, I got pregnant a second time...” She paused, knowing that it might take a moment for Maia to absorb that particular bombshell of information, and she didn’t want to rush the explanation.
Maia listened as close as before, eager for any information Lilly was willing to give her -- from her step-children to her career in pediatrics, anything at all. But as soon as she mentioned a second pregnancy, it was as though everything around her had been put on pause.
A second pregnancy. A sibling. Half-sibling, to be sure, but still.
Maia had known it was a possibility, of course. She'd even considered it while she was preparing in the weeks that led to this meeting. Considering it was very different than knowing it as fact, though. Of course, there was a lot of information still missing. Swallowing hard, Maia willed herself to nod and try to wash the shock from her face; she wasn't too successful with the latter. "You did?"
"I did," she confirmed softly, "I wasn't as irresponsible as that makes it seem. I thought I was taking every precautions because I did not want to be in a position to have to make those choices again. Especially not so soon."
There was no small amount of anguish written in her features when she admitted, "I couldn't keep her either…your sister. For the same reasons that I knew it was best for you. Everything that I did was to try to give you both better lives. My parents wouldn't let me have an open adoption with you like I wanted, and with her…I don't know. I was technically an adult, if still a teenager, and I think I felt like it was unfair to you if I did things any differently? I'm not certain I thought I deserved to know either of you, back then. I know only that she was adopted quickly by a family that had been waiting. I gave her the name Oceana. I'm…not certain if they kept that name or chose another."
Just as Maia felt like maybe the world was starting to spin on its axis again, Lilly dropped one more name: Oceana. She knew an Oceana, of course. She was the teacher at Kylie's dance lessons. She had been in the Waters-Wentworth wedding, alongside Maia herself as one of Lorelei's bridesmaids. They had spoken plenty of times and always seemed very nice and sweet. Not once did she have a revelation where Maia felt like she should have known the other woman from somewhere or that they had some hidden connection that neither might have understood. But, why would she have? It's not like Maia knew before this very moment that she should be cognizant of there being the potential for her to run into a sister out there somewhere.
And besides -- what were the odds that the Oceana that lived in Dunhaven was the same one that Lilly had given up for adoption? Her parents had respected her biological mother's wish and not changed her name when they'd adopted her, but what was the likelihood that her sister's would have done the same?
Swallowing hard, she tried to move past the thoughts, but still couldn't help asking, "The family had been waiting? Do you -- I understand it was a closed adoption, but do you know if they were local or anything like that?"
Lilly nodded after a moment, “I didn’t specifically pick them to adopt her or anything. Her social worker took enough pity on me to let me know that she was going to a loving family in the area, yes. Of course, I don’t know if they moved after the fact. I...somewhat purposefully did not read articles in the papers that announced anything regarding school events or honor roll for years. If they kept either of your names...I was afraid that I’d be tempted to step in, I guess. Especially once I was on a much better path. I wanted desperately to know information about the both of you, but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to leave it at just that.”
She managed a small, sorrowful smile, “I’m sorry to just put that information on you, but...both of you are such a big part of who I am, even if I did not raise you. I could not be entirely truthful without mentioning her. I have not sought out additional information because she hasn’t made contact with me, but...the local library has yearbooks for all the schools in the area. If her adoptive family kept her name, she may be in those yearbooks. She was born June 6, 1991.”
June 6. The date didn't really mean anything to Maia, but it did itch at the back of her mind. Was she imagining it or could that have been around the time that she'd picked up Kylie from dance and her face had been smeared with frosting from the cupcakes the instructor had brought in for her birthday? Or had it been when Lorelei had updated her Instagram with a picture of her brother's girlfriend to wish her a happy celebration of her birth? The year even felt right, though that didn't necessarily mean anything.
Maia took in a deep breath, trying to steady her heart that she only just realized was racing away in her chest. The idea of having a sibling out there that had been in the same situation as her and she hadn't known existed for 28 years was one thing, but it was something entirely different to think that there was a possibility, even if it was a slim one, that she might be the Oceana she actually knew.
"I'm sorry," Maia apologized, realizing that she had probably been quiet and lost in her own thoughts a few seconds too long to be polite. "I actually know someone named Oceana, but I'm sure it's just a coincidence. I don't really know much about her, other than that she's dating my -- " A slight hesitation, like always, when she considered which of the many possible descriptors to use for her relationship with Wyatt and the other Wentworths. "I mean, Kylie's uncle's brother-in-law. She's also Kylie's dance instructor, for that matter."
Another brief pause as Maia took a sip of lemonade, shaking her head once before repeating, "I'm sure it's just a coincidence."
Though there had been a longer pause than what might have been strictly comfortable, Lilly did not want to rush Maia in this. She could take as long as she needed to process that new information. It was a surprise, however, to discover that Maia actually knew an Oceana. Like her, it was tempting to believe it was just a coincidence, and yet…was it?
"It may be a coincidence, but the name Oceana is...not terribly common," she conceded. It seemed to her that Maia was trying to convince herself of how unlikely that situation would be. Lilly couldn't help but wonder now, too, if the universe had somehow pulled them together.
"If...if you wanted to find out for certain, I would go with you. I realize that regardless of whether or not she is the woman you know, she may not want to be found, but you do not have to take that step alone." Lilly knew that the potential for rejection was a frightening thing, but maybe if they were at least there to support one another, it would make a difference.
Maia considered the offer. It was a kind one, but not one that she thought she could accept. Not yet, at least. Not only did she need some time to consider the possibility, she also had to decide if this was something she even wanted to explore. It had taken her months to reach this point, where she'd finally been able to summon the courage to come down the coast to meet Lilly. Somehow it felt even more daunting to meet this possible sister, even if she could have already met her before. It had been one thing with Lilly as obviously she had a biological mother. A sibling, though? It had always been a possibility, but never one she'd put too much consideration into. Quincy and Oliver were her siblings. She had never considered making room for more.
Swallowing, Maia managed a small smile. "I appreciate that, but I think -- I think I need to just think on this for now. It might not even be her." And if she did pursue it, only to find out that her hunch was wrong? That seemed more painful than anything else. Would she continue her search elsewhere? Would she just go on with life, accepting that she had a sibling out there somewhere that she'd never meet?
"I really am thankful you said something, though," Maia went on, her sincerity clear. "There are parts of my life that have always been in shadow and I couldn't do much to actually see them, so I'm glad that's one part that has been lit up."
Lilly tried not to be disappointed, though she realized that her own eagerness was probably something brought on by all those years of wondering. Now the possibility of answers felt close enough that she was willing to abandon the rules that she had set for herself when her daughters were born. “I understand. If you change your mind, just let me know?”
She thought, maybe, it was time to shift gears a little. Back towards more familiar territory. The reason that they’d come here in the first place...because of each other, “I’d love to hear...anything about you that you’re willing to tell me. What you do, your likes and dislikes...if you’re comfortable telling me about your family, I’d love to hear about them, too.”
Thankful for the change in subject, Maia let her mind shift toward Lilly's questions. Talking about her family and her passions -- that was something that she could do. It was a nice distraction from the revelations that she had just been handed, allowing her some time before she almost certainly overanalyzed as soon as she was back with Wyatt.
"Well, um," Maia started, a small smile at the corner of her lips despite herself; it was easy to smile when she thought about her loved ones. "I was just over a year old when I was adopted. The couple -- my parents, I mean, had two biological sons already, so I have two older brothers, Quincy and Oliver. Oliver is only six months older than me, so we grew up pretty close. He actually just got married a few months ago, so I have a sister now, too." She paused, the words having just flowed from her; it struck her, again, how easy she found it was to talk to her. "And then I have Kylie, my daughter. She's seven and is just wonderful in so many ways. Her father's name is Wyatt. We're -- " Maia hesitated, her brow furrowing as she once more went through the normal mental Olympics that came with determining what label to use for Wyatt on any given day. She finally decided, "He's my best friend. He's actually here, in the hotel."
Maia's hands circled around her nearly empty glass of lemonade before she continued. "As for me, I'm an event coordinator and tend to focus on planning weddings. I never would have imagined doing it, but it's sort of become my passion. I really enjoy it."
Lilly listened, and she soaked in every last detail. Every bit of it, from her brothers to this best friend that was the father of Kylie, inspired new questions. She longed for a sense of Maia’s life, and that it had been a great one despite circumstances and hardships. That easy sense that they had around one another remained as they sat there, deep in conversation for longer than either of them had anticipated. At least one of her daughters had gotten the kind of life that she had hoped for them. That would have to be enough for now.