Chapter 13
Sabrina read the adoption file at the kitchen table.
The same table where I had helped her with homework.
The same table where Victoria had planned to steal my home.
Her hands shook as she turned each page.
Legal adoption.
My signature.
Victoria’s signature.
DNA addendum.
Sealed paternity result.
Birth certificate amendment request.
Court approval.
She looked up slowly.
“You knew?”
“No.”
“But you signed it.”
“I signed what Victoria and the lawyer handed me. She told me the adoption was symbolic. The DNA page was sealed.”
Marisol nodded.
“The file appears to have been intentionally misrepresented.”
Sabrina looked at Raymond through the window.
He paced near the driveway, phone pressed to his ear.
“Did he know?”
“Yes,” I said.
Her face broke.
“And Mom?”
“Yes.”
She pushed the papers away.
“No.”
I wanted to touch her hand.
I didn’t.
She had to choose whether I was safe.
“Why would she tell me you weren’t my real father?”
I swallowed.
“Because if you believed Raymond was, she could use him to control how you saw me.”
Tears spilled down her face.
“I was so cruel to you.”
“Yes.”
She flinched.
Good.
Truth should sting before it heals.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“I believe you are sorry right now.”
She looked up.
“That’s not forgiveness.”
“No.”
Her mouth trembled.
“Do you hate me?”
That question took me back twenty years.
To a toddler in worn shoes reaching for me.
To a girl asleep on my chest.
To a teenager rolling her eyes while asking me to fix a dress strap.
“No,” I said. “But I am hurt in places I don’t know how to name yet.”
She sobbed.
Raymond banged on the front door.
“Open up.”
Sabrina jumped.
Mateo blocked the door.
Raymond shouted, “She is my daughter.”
Sabrina stood.
May you like
Her voice shook.
“No, Raymond. I don’t think I ever was.”
