Page 1 of Take Me Home

Hattie

Green eyes.

Auburn hair.

Two features glaring back at me in the mirror. Unremarkable features to a stranger…but two that have mocked me since I was in sixth grade biology class and learned about DNA. Then again, last year, when I had a full health panel with labs done to prepare for the Olympics—and noted that I’m Type O.

I’ve always wondered how my parents both have dark hair and brown eyes but I don’t. After some sleuthing through their filing cabinet, my—apparently Type O—blood turned to ice when I saw my mother is Type A and my father is AB. According to Dr. Google, it’s impossible for an A and AB to have O offspring. That knowledge is how I find myself staring down at an envelope containing my paternity test results.

The question of my paternity has constantly niggled at the back of my mind. It’s surreal to have this envelope in my hands, to finally get my questions answered. But I’m also terrified.

“Hattie, you’re freaking me out,” my best friend Blair says from behind me. “Just open it.”

I look past myself to make eye contact with her in the mirror. Blair looks the way I should. Dark brown hair that curls into ringlets and eyes that change colors depending on what she’s wearing but are usually golden brown.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath. “I don’t know if I can look, Blair.”

She spins me around to face her, her perfectly manicured hands coming to rest on my shoulders. “Harriet Kimball Townsend. You are a brilliant, talented, gorgeous Olympic bronze medalist. You took the FEI circuit by storm. You’re a woman who doesn’t take no for an answer. You can face this.”

She glances down at the envelope I’m clutching in my hands, and my eyes follow hers. My freshly polished French tips are digging into the paper and leaving marks. I ease my hold on it.

A chill shoots down my spine as I study my name on the front of the envelope, knowing that what’s inside could turn my world upside down.

With a deep breath, I slide my finger beneath the seal and rip the envelope open, allowing it to drop to the floor as I unfold the paper inside.

One little paper. That’s all. It feels rather unceremonious, even though my heart rate is telling me this is monumental.

I unfold the letter, and my eyes scroll the page. My gaze flies across the results.

Mother: probability of parentage 99.9%.

Okay, that part isn’t too surprising.

I scan to the father portion.

My heart stops.

A sob catches in my throat, and I fall to my knees, landing on the floor with a thud.

“Hattie!” Blair yells, kneeling beside me and catching me in her arms.

CHAPTER 1

Hattie

With the autumn breeze whipping across my face, I inhale a deep breath as Oakley gallops across an open field on my parents’ property. Townsend Manor is nestled amongst the rolling hills of Sonoma County, California. This is my haven; it has been since I was old enough to ride.

I listen to the steady gait of Oakley’s hooves against the soft grass that springs up across the fields every fall from all the rain. As I look out across the lush, green landscape, I try to let go of the negative feelings coursing through me.

It’s been a month since I read my DNA results. Thirty days of chaos and trepidation. Seven hundred and twenty hours that I’ve replayed the man I grew up with walking out the door with a slam and then my mother frantically filling my head with her excuses.

I thought it would be better this way.

Raymond is your father in every way that counts.

It was a one-night stand, a mistake.

My mother kept her little secret from me and my biological father.