This is not a continuation of Exposed by DNA. It is a separate tale.
*****
How do you forgive someone who has ripped out your heart and stomped on it? Someone who has taken what should have been one of your happiest moments and turned it into a living hell? How do you forget someone who has destroyed your capacity to love?
Hildegard and Greg met senior year in high school. Both were orphans at the Blackwood Home but hadn't noticed each other there. Greg didn't really pay attention to girls at that point. His focus, and Hildy's too, was education, specifically getting into Purdue. Life wasn't easy for orphans, and if they wanted a good education and success, they'd really have to work for it. Greg was laser focused on his future.
He had noticed Hildy first at chess club, then at the Future Engineers meetings. They soon gravitated towards each other, becoming best buds. It was kind of natural, as they were the only two orphans in those clubs. In the end, they did everything together, even just hanging out to watch TV. They even went to prom together, although it wasn't romantic. Neither of them had a social life, other than what they shared together, and Hildy thought it would be a shame for them to miss prom, so why didn't they just go together. They did and had a ball. They even went to an after party, where Hildy drank a little, got carried away, and kissed him, saying, "Greg, It's prom! Isn't something supposed to happen at prom?"
He just laughed and told her, "Come on, Hildy. It's like kissing my brother!" They both laughed at that and went home to Blackwood.
They both got into Purdue, with scholarships and student loans, both studying engineering. They would have roomed together had the college let them, but luckily, they didn't. Hildy's roommate was Piper.
After Greg got his room situated, he went to find out how Hildy was doing, and saw Piper. The world stopped when his blue eyes met her blue eyes. In the Godfather they talk about being thunderstruck. Greg had never believed in it until the lightening hit Piper and him that day. She was his first and only love.
They became the three amigos, Hildy, Piper, and Greg. Piper was a Business Administration major, so Hildy and Greg were always together studying engineering, but socially, they did everything together with Piper. Except, of course when Piper and Greg got together for a date or snuck off to his dorm room when his roommate was out.
At the end of Junior year, tragedy struck, and Piper joined Hildy and Greg as an orphan. Her parents, who constituted her only family, died when her father's Cessna crashed into a mountain one foggy day. Hildy and he comforted her and became her family.
College flew by and Hildy and Greg not only graduated but both got hired by a major firm in Atlanta. By graduation, Piper and Greg were engaged, and got married at City Hall at week later, with Hildy as the best man. They honeymooned on the drive to Atlanta, with Hildy acting as the lovers' chauffeur.
In Atlanta, things only got better. Piper applied for employment at the firm where Hildy and Greg worked and was hired. With Piper's and his combined salaries, even with their student loans, they were able to buy a house, instead of renting. The three of them became a loving household.
Piper worried about Hildy being alone, so she introduced Hildy to Jamie, from her work. Hildy didn't seem that interested in Jamie, but Greg could see her looking at the happiness Piper and he had, and he thought she just decided to give it a shot. After six months of dating, Hildy moved in with Jamie. He glowed with love; Greg thought that Hildy just kind of simmered.
For four years, they were happy, Piper and Greg, successful and moving forward in their careers and as comfortable as clams at home. Then it only got better. Greg came home one day to find that Piper had decorated the house with pink and blue garlands. When he walked in, Hildy, Jamie and Piper threw streamers at him and Piper yelled, "Surprise! I'm pregnant!"
The world keeps getting better and better. They all cheered, Piper opened a bottle of champagne for Jamie, Hildy and him (cider for herself), and they toasted Piper, the baby, Greg's sperm, and anything else they could think of. Hildy and Jamie then made themselves scarce so Piper and he could celebrate further.
Nine months more of love, nine months of happiness. Everything went like clockwork. At each appointment, Dr. Brown, Piper's doctor, assured her that she'd have no trouble with her delivery and that she and the baby were as healthy as horses. Hildy and Greg went to excess pampering the mother to be. What a wonderful world it truly was.
As promised by Doctor Brown, the delivery was not only easy, but short. Greg was in the delivery room, holding his lover's hand. Hildy was upset that she had to stay out in the waiting area. Amy, their beautiful daughter, seemed to slide gracefully into the doctor's waiting hands. After severing the umbilical cord, Greg went with the nurse to watch her get cleaned. Amy was perfect, except for a red mark on the back of her left hand. Worried that it might be cancer or some defect, he pulled the doctor aside the first chance he got. The doc assured him that it was fine and would likely fade in just a few days.
Hildy came in once the new parents were settled in Piper's room. The new mother was holding their child, looking like the perfect Madonna. A wonderful sight. Greg gently took Amy from his wife, to show her off to Hildy. Amy opened her eyes wide, looking curiously at the world. That's when Hildy gasped and said, "Greg, look! Her eyes are brown!"
His world stopped. Of course, he was remembering the same biology classes that Hildy was. Two blue eyed parents can't have a brown eye child. Can't have a brown eyed child. Can't have a brown eye....
"Greg, she's cheating on you." Hildy hissed at him.
Greg practically threw the child at her startled mother and stormed from the room. He cornered the maternity nurse, and asked if a child's dark brown eyes might fade to blue. "No," she said. "Baby's eyes tend to darken if they change, and I've never heard of dark brown eyes ever changing to blue."
"But my wife and I both have blue eyes, but the baby's are dark brown," he said, hoping for an explanation.
The nurse looked at him sadly and said softly, "I'm very sorry."
Greg stormed back into Piper's room and angrily confronted her. "Who's the father, bitch!" Piper looked shocked, probably at having been discovered. "Who've you been fucking?"