‘Ready for cake and ice cream?’ – My mum asked.
I swallowed. My throat was so dry it felt like sandpaper.
‘Something happened this morning,’ I said.
Mum’s smile faded at first.
Dad set aside his coffee.
‘What is it, sweetheart?’
I opened my mouth. Closed it. God, how was I supposed to say it?
I forced myself to say the words.
‘A woman came to our house.’
They both tensed.
‘She…she said she’s my birth mother.’
The air in the room changed.
Mum’s hand gripped the edge of the sofa tightly, her knuckles turning white. Dad’s face turned stony, as if someone had sucked all the warmth out of him in an instant.
Neither of them spoke.
‘She told me that…’ My voice shook. I calmed down. ‘She told me that you lied. That you tricked her into giving me up.’
My mum let out a shuddering sigh, and something in that sound, something in that pain, made my stomach twist.
‘Emma,’ she said. ‘That’s absolutely not true.’
‘Then why did she say that?’ I asked.
Dad exhaled through his nose, slowly and controlled, as if trying to keep himself in check.
‘Because she knew it would hurt you.’
I shook my head.
‘You don’t know that.’
‘Emma, we know,’ my mum’s voice broke, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. ‘We knew this day could come. We just didn’t think it would be like this.’
She reached for my hand, but I yanked it away. She flinched as if I’d slapped her.
‘I just…’ I swallowed the lump in my throat. ‘She wants to get to know me better. And I think I want to get to know her, too.’
Silence.
Thick. Heavy. Suffocating.
‘What exactly are you trying to say, Emma?’ – My father asked.
‘I told her I’m staying with her for a week.’
My mother made a sound, small, almost inaudible. Like a sharp inhale before a sob.
My father sat up straighter, his jaw clenched.
‘A week,’ he repeated.
I nodded.
‘Please.’
‘Emma, please, my girl,’ Mum said. ‘Just listen to us. Don’t go away.’
‘I’ve listened to you all my life. Please let me figure this out for myself.’
Dad exhaled, his voice quiet but firm. ‘Go on, Emma. It’s just…she left you once. Just think about that before you walk out the door.’
‘I’ll call you,’ I whispered.
Mum let out a suppressed sob.
‘Yes, you will,’ my dad said.
And I went with her.
Sarah’s house wasn’t just a house. It was a mansion. A freaking mansion. Who would have thought?
Marble floors. Chandeliers that looked like they belonged in castles. A grand staircase curving up to the first floor like something out of a film.
‘This can be yours,’ she told me, her voice thick with emotion. ‘We can live the life we were meant to live.’
A sharp prick of guilt pierced me.
Had my parents stolen that from me? Had they really stolen it from me?
I decided to stay for a week, just like I told my parents. Just to see.
But the truth didn’t last long.
The next day, a woman stopped me outside the mansion.
‘You must be Emma,’ she said, watching me carefully.
‘Er… yeah. Who are you?’ I hesitated.
‘I’m Evelyn,’ she exhaled. ‘I live next door.’
A pause.
‘She didn’t tell you, did she? Sarah?’
A chill ran down my spine.
‘Tell me what?’
Evelyn’s lips pressed into a thin line.
‘That she never fought for you. That no one forced her to give you up. She did it because she wanted to.’
My stomach twisted, and a now-familiar feeling of dread and anxiety overwhelmed me.
‘It’s not true. It can’t be,’ I said quickly.
Evelyn didn’t blink an eye.
‘I knew your grandfather well. I knew her well. I was there all the time…’
I swallowed hard.
‘She told me…not that.’
‘What, sweetheart? Did she tell you she was young and scared?’ intervened Evelyn. ‘That she regretted it? That she cried for you every day? That there was a hole left in her heart after you left?’
I nodded.
Evelyn’s face hardened.
‘Emma, she was having fun. She partied hard. She spent every penny she had. And when she got pregnant, she started seeing you as an inconvenience. Suddenly her life was…too different.’
I felt something inside me crack.
‘She never once sought you out,’ Evelyn continued. ‘Not once. Until now.’
The mansion. The despair. Time.
‘Why now?’ I whispered. ‘Why would she look for me now?’
Evelyn sighed.
‘Because your grandfather died last month,’ she looked me in the eye. ‘And he left everything to you. You’re eighteen now, honey. Everything is officially yours now.’
Nausea swept over me.
No. No. No… no, it wasn’t….
‘She’s back because you’re her ticket, Emma!’
Evelyn’s voice softened.
‘Because, sweetheart, if she convinces you to stay here, she’ll tell you everything. And you’ll be her ticket to the good life. She wants you to be her ticket…’
The world blurred. The mansion. Tears. Trembling hands.
It wasn’t about love. It was never about love.
It was about money.
And I was nothing more than a golden ticket.
I stood at the front stairs, slinging my bag over my shoulder. Sarah leaned on the banister, crossing her arms and staring intently into my eyes.
‘You’re really leaving,’ she said sharply.
‘Yes.’
‘You’re making a mistake, Emma,’ she scoffed.
‘No,’ I said. ‘The mistake is that you believed you wanted me, not my inheritance.’
‘I gave birth to you,’ she said.
‘And then you let me go.’
‘So you’re going to take the money and leave?’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I’m going to pay my own tuition next year when I go to college. And I’m going to spoil my parents like they’ve spoiled me all my life.’
For once, she didn’t find anything to answer.
I turned towards the door.
‘You owe me, Emma,’ she snarled.
I stopped, taking hold of the handle.
‘I don’t owe you anything,’ I said.
When I got home, my parents were waiting for me.
I didn’t say anything. I just threw myself into my mum’s arms.
She hugged me tightly, stroking my hair.
‘You’re home,’ she whispered.
And she was right. I was home.
Because, after all, I didn’t need a mansion, or a fortune, or a mother who only needed me when it was convenient.
‘Welcome back, little girl,’ my father said.
I already had everything I needed.
A real family.
