Chapter 12
I called Sabrina at seven.
She answered on the fourth ring.
Her voice was hoarse.
“What?”
“I need to see you.”
“Dad, if this is about money—”
“It’s about your adoption file.”
Silence.
Then, “What adoption file?”
“You don’t know?”
“Mom said you never adopted me. She said you didn’t want legal responsibility because I wasn’t yours.”
I closed my eyes.
Another lie.
Another knife.
“Sabrina, come to the house. Alone.”
“I’m with Logan.”
“Alone.”
She hesitated.
“Mom says I shouldn’t trust you right now.”
“Your mother lied about Raymond.”
“She says you’re trying to punish us.”
“Sabrina.”
My voice cracked.
“You may be my biological daughter.”
The line went silent.
Then she laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because the truth was too large to enter any other way.
“That’s not possible.”
“I have the file.”
“No.”
“I need you to take a test.”
“No.”
Her breathing turned ragged.
“Why would Mom lie?”
I wanted to say because she is cruel.
Because money mattered more.
Because Raymond mattered more.
But the girl on the phone was not only the woman who had laughed at me.
She was also the child they had lied to.
“I don’t know all of it yet.”
She whispered, “Raymond said you were trying to replace him.”
“He replaced me before I knew you existed.”
She hung up.
Two hours later, Sabrina arrived.
Not alone.
Logan drove her.
Raymond sat in the back seat.
I stepped onto the porch.
Marisol stood beside me.
Mateo, my newly hired security guard, stood near the driveway.
Raymond got out smiling.
“Glenn, this is desperate.”
I looked at Sabrina.
Her face was pale.
“Come inside.”
Raymond laughed.
“She doesn’t need your fake papers.”
Sabrina looked at him.
“Fake?”
He froze.
That one second told her enough.
Her voice shook.
“Raymond, did you know?”
He said nothing.
Sabrina stepped away from him.
For the first time, she looked at me not with shame.
May you like
With fear.
“Show me.”
