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“Her housemate. Do I need to get a broom to make a clean sweep? Or should I get salt, holy water, or garlic?”
“That’s offensive,” Lily snapped. “Iris, I can’t believe you told her.”
Sally blinked. “Told me what? That’s just what you do to get rid of bad energy. Please leave if that’s how you plan to handle this situation.”
“This is none of your business,” Iris’s mom said.
Sally didn’t back down. “It is, though. You’re doing this in my home, and if I feel uncomfortable, I have the right to ask visitors to leave. It’s in the rental agreement.”
Lily stood with a frosty look at Sally. “I can see there will be no having civil discourse, Iris. Your quality of friends is precisely what I’d expect.”
Rose seemed to feel incredibly awkward about it all. “Maybe we should…take some time? We can talk again when tempers cool.”
“Indeed,” said Iris’s mother. “Reach out when you’re ready.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Dazed, iris stared at thecup in her hand.
It was part of the china set she particularly liked—with the purple flowers and scalloped edges. She had no memory of picking it up. Sally sat beside her, gently rubbing her back while Eli hovered.
“I’m so sorry,” Sally said softly.
She glanced between them with a growing sense of bewilderment. “My mom and sisters were really here, right?”
“Is there anything I can do?” Eli asked, sounding anxious.
Shaking her head, Iris whispered, “How does something like this even happen?”
There was no map for navigating this revelation. With shaking hands, she took a sip of the tea and gathered herself as best she could. This was the kind of reveal she’d enjoy in a Korean drama, but living it?
Not much fun.
Sally said, “I’ve heard of rare cases where infants have been switched at birth. Usually, staff made a mistake and mixed up the tags or something. I remember one case where it happened because both babies had jaundice and there was only one incubator.”
“I don’t know if that applies here.” Oddly, hearing Sally discuss the possibilities in such a matter-of-fact manner? It helped.
“The most important thing for you to keep in mind? This isn’t your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Iris drew in a shaky breath, trying not to cry. “I swear, Lily was glad. Now she doesn’t have to feel guilty about Dylan, I guess. Because I’m not really her sister. It was harder to read Rose and Mom. Or should I call her Delphine now?”
“Lily is a piece of work,” Sally muttered, shaking her head. “Bruce and Mitch adopted both their kids, and they’re every bit as precious to me as Megan.”
Iris tried to smile because Sally was right; blood ties shouldn’t matter. The people who raised and loved you ought to be your family. But she didn’t feel confident that Mom really wanted her to reach out later. Maybe everyone would be happier if Iris used this as an opportunity to cut ties for good, and that was a heartbreaking possibility.
Her voice came out unsteady. “It’s odd; I never felt like I fit in, and now I have literal confirmation. It wasn’t just a feeling. Iwasa cuckoo in the nest.”
“I don’t understand your mother. She was so cold!”
Iris couldn’t muster a smile. “Delphine might be relieved. I was always the weird one, the child she couldn’t explain.”
“You don’t need to beexplained,” Sally said in an indignant tone.
It was incredible that this was why they’d been calling lately. Not to argue about Rose’s party or to demand that she forgive Lily or even to smooth things over in their usual dismissive way—by calling herdramatic. But…to tell her that she wasn’t biologically related. Lily hadn’t bothered to hide her opinion either—You’re not one of us. You never have been. And now we have documentation to prove it.
Everything about this was messy, a scandal the rest of the family would hate other people knowing about. Iris wondered how Dad and Olive felt and what she was supposed to do now.Do I change my last name? But I don’t know what my actual last name is. How does this evenwork?Presumably, if something went wrong at the hospital, there should be records regarding her biological family, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to meet them.
What if they’re even worse? What if they prefer the child they raised? And it turns outnobodywants me?She clenched her fist on the teacup to the point that it was faintly surprising that the delicate handle didn’t snap off in her grasp. Sally seemed to feel the same way since she removed the fragile porcelain gently from Iris’s hand.
