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"Sure. All the time. I have a face I put on. Tough, reliable, in charge. It is exhausting. I've wondered what it would be like to come home and not have to make every single decision and maybe even be held to a higher standard. Sometimes, when it is just yourself you're responsible to, you let things slip. Like eating regularly or getting enough sleep or, for instance, my gaslight has been on for two days. I keep meaning to get to the gas station, but it hasn't been a priority."
"Teagan!"
"I know, I'm going to the gas station when I leave here tonight. When I saw it on my way here, I thought about your relationship and how Luca is. I wondered how Luca would respond to my gas light being on for two days."
"He'd make sure you didn't want to sit in that car!" Ro said confidently.
"Over something that small?" Teagan asked, slightly concerned.
"Don't look so worried. If you had filled up when the light had first come on, no big deal, but two days? Your butt would definitely be on the line. He's all about responsibility." She took another bite of her taco before speaking around the mouthful. "If you ask me, the blasted man could use a little lightening up." Both women laughed.
"You would think I would be big on responsibility, too, considering what I do for a living."
"Yeah, but you're always the last person you think about. I've figured that out just in the little bit of time we have known each other. Let me clear our plates, and then we can talk some more. I want to hear about your decision to become a police detective." Ro stood and took Teagan's plate from her, leaving Teagan to grab the beers. As Ro made quick work of getting the plates in the dishwasher, Teagan grabbed two more beers out of the fridge. Returning to the living room, the girls sat again.
"I meant to tell you, I saw your mom today," Teagan said.
"I know; she called me after you left."
"Did she tell you what we talked about?" Teagan asked nervously.
"Of course not. Mom would never violate your trust like that. Besides, 'The Mother' isn't a big fan of gossip."
"She's a wonderful woman. You got lucky." There was no bitterness in Teagan's tone. She had learned a long time ago that it was okay to be happy for someone else while mourning for yourself.
"I was lucky to end up where I did. My parents are pretty wonderful, even if my dad can be a bit much at times." Thinking back to Thanksgiving, both women laughed.
"Don't you ever wonder, Ro? I mean, really wonder?"
"Wonder what, Teagan?"
"Wonder why she didn't want us. Was it because there were three of us? Was she a young teenager? Was she a college student who couldn't handle the responsibility? Was she super religious and didn't believe in abortion? Did she take one look at us and decide she didn't love us? Why? She obviously didn't plan to put us up for adoption, right? She had to have known about us; how do you not know you are carrying triplets? So, what happened? What made a woman give birth to three daughters and abandon them at a fire station?" Teagan noticed the color drain from Ro's face. "What is it? What's wrong?"
"I…" She picked up a throw pillow and hugged it to her chest. "My mother told me someone picked them out to be my parents. She got the call that they were chosen from a list of adoptive families. She swears she didn't know I had sisters. My mom would have never allowed us to be separated if she had known," she said confidently. "So, the adoption agency didn't release that information? The media wouldn't have said something about three babies?"
"It doesn't make sense, Ro. Why would our mother hand pick your parents and Evie's parents but leave me? Abandon me?" Teagan's face fell. "It was because I was sick…" The conclusion hit her like a punch in the gut. "She didn't want me because I was sick. She cared so little about me that she just left me, rejected me, and made sure you two were in healthy, happy homes, leaving me to the wolves."
"No, no one is that heartless," Ro said.
"Well, someday, I'm going to find her, and I am going to ask her, myself," Teagan declared.
"Is that why you decided to become a police detective? To find our biological parents?"
"No, not at all. It was about the children. I had spent my youth getting to know other foster kids. Many had entered the system because of the atrocities committed against them. Looking back, I felt abandoned and hopeless but also angry, so incredibly angry. We were always treated as less than, worthless, through no fault of our own. Time after time, my foster siblings were returned home to their biological families just to be abused again. I felt helpless."
"So, why didn't you become a social worker or a counselor?" Ro asked. "I would have thought that would have been the route you would have taken."
"I considered it. But then, I had a foster brother. Oh, Ro, he was the cutest thing you'd ever seen! He was a little boy, five-years-old. He had red hair and the cutest freckles across the bridge of his nose. He had been sexually molested by his stepfather and put into foster care. It hadn't broken his spirit, though; he had gone through play therapy and had really blossomed." Teagan's eyes glossed over as she remembered.
"I was sixteen when he was put into the foster home that I was in. I was the oldest there, and I was in charge of all the children. I fed them, bathed them and rocked them all to sleep. I was more their mother than our foster mother was. I became especially close to Samuel. I know we shouldn't have had favorites, but he was mine." Teagan had a far-off look in her eyes as she remembered Samuel and his innocent smile.
Ro sat back on her heels, listening quietly. Storm clouds passed in Teagan's eyes. She shoved herself to standing and began pacing like a lioness in a cage, from one end of the room to the other.
"My foster mother and I went to court that day, fully convinced his father would be convicted. That's when it happened," Teagan paused.
"What?" Fully engrossed in the story, Ro whispered her question.
"The evidence was thrown out. There had been an error in the gathering of it, and as such, it was inadmissible. A small error; one of the detectives hadn't dated the chain of custody log. Samuel's stepfather came from money and had an expensive lawyer. The lawyer came across the lack of date and put forth the suggestion that the evidence could have then been tampered with. Samuel's stepfather was released, and they retained custody." It was as if Teagan was back there, in that courtroom, remembering the way her stomach had lurched when the declaration had been made. Ro's outraged gasp drew Teagan back into the present.
