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“You regret getting our son?” he shoots back.
“Of course not! But he wasn’t even an option when you made that decision.”
“Wait—what are you talking about?” I look between my mom and dad, but they’re too angry to notice.
Nova leans over to me. “Maybe we should leave.”
“No. I want to hear this.”
“I told you this would happen if you let her into our lives,” my dad says. “And I was right! That’s why I forbid you from doing this, and then you went behind my back and did it while I was out of town!”
“I didn’t plan on that happening! She was sick. Burning up with fever. And living in her car. In a snowstorm. Only a monster would turn her away!”
“You could’ve taken her to a shelter.”
My mom throws her hands up. “And who would take care of her there? Another homeless person?”
“She’s not your responsibility.”
“She’s a child, Stephen! She has no one!”
He shakes his head. “I can’t believe we’re doing this again. The exact same fight we had 12 years ago!” He screams it, startling Jenna.
“Dad, are you okay?” she says.
“Jenna, go to your room!” my mom yells at her.
“I want to know what’s going on.”
“You might as well tell them,” my dad says to my mom. “I’m sure they’re wondering why you’ve been crying in your room every night.”
“I’m crying because my husband doesn’t support me,” she says, her voice cracking.
“Why would I support this? I’ve already been through it once and it nearly destroyed us. The crying. The depression. Your obsession to find her family. It was like I didn’t even exist. And now, here we are again, only this time it’s worse because of your guilt over what you did.” He huffs. “You see what happens when you try to help? She ends up worse than if you’d just left her alone.”
My mom slumps down in her chair, crying into her hands.
I turn to my dad. “What the hell is going on here? What happened 12 years ago?”
“It was me,” Nova says.
I look at Nova and see her staring at the table. “What did you say?”
“They’re talking about me.” She looks up. “They were going to adopt me, not you.”
“What? No. They didn’t even know you.”
“She’s right,” my dad says. “She was the child we were going to adopt.”
25
Easton
“I could’ve had a sister?”Jenna says.
“That doesn’t make sense,” I say, my mind racing to figure this out. “You’d never even met Nova.”
“I did,” my mom says.
