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“Why did his parents raise you?” Karen asks.
“My mom was...”
What’s a nice way to put this?
“My mom was in trouble,” I finally say. I don’t know the whole story. Chances are that I never will. Frank has always been a world-class liar, and anything I can’t remember from my limited time with my mom are things that are just lost for always.
“And they helped her out?” Karen asks gently.
“Something like that.”
Emilia doesn’t buy it, though.
“I don’t think so,” she says. “Harrison O’Conner might be a bully, but if his dad is anything like any of our classmates’ fathers, then he’s a world-class dick. Guys like that don’t help people out of the goodness of their hearts.”
“Yeah,” I say.
“Spill it,” Emilia says. “You’ve already told us half of the information. You might as well tell us the rest so we can be here for you.”
Karen places her hand on my knee, but she doesn’t try to force me to speak. Instead, my two friends wait.
Finally, I blurt it out.
“I think he bought me,” I say.
It sounds horrible to reveal this information out loud. I’m shocked when neither girl says a word. Neither one of them judges me or laughs at me or tells me I’m crazy.
Instead, they both reach for me, pulling me into a sort of weird, awkward group hug.
“Oh honey,” Emilia says.
“I’m so sorry,” Karen adds.
Together, they whisper, trying to help me calm down, and it’s only when they start rubbing my back that I realize I really am shaking.
I’ve never told anyone this before.
I’ve never shared this information with anyone.
“I don’t have any proof,” I say, as though that matters.
“I’m sure he’s covered his tracks,” Karen says.
“What do you remember?” Emilia asks, and so I tell them.
“My mom and me...well, it was just us. For a long time. Forever. One day, she said I had to go live with my Uncle Frank, and then he appeared. He and his wife came and got me, and they took me away.”
“You never saw your mom again,” Emilia says.
It’s not a question.
“I never even saw that part of town again,” I say. “I don’t even know how my mom knew Frank and his wife. I don’t know how she owed them money, or if they offered her cash for me, or what went down. I don’t know any of it.”
“You never will, either,” Karen shakes her head. “Shit like that...that’s the kind of stuff you see on TV or read about in books. Those guys always mess up and reveal their secrets, but those are stories. In real life, you never get answers. You never get closure.”
“Have you ever tried to find your mom?” Emilia asks, and I nod.
“Yeah, I...I mean, I’ve seen my birth certificate, so I know her name.”
