He glared at David. “You sly dog. You didn’t fall for it.”
David, either trying to appease him or further provoke him, murmured an apology. “I’m
sorry, Uncle Hank. It’s my fault your frame–up didn’t work. My sincere apologies.”
My dad sputtered, speechless, alaring at
Join the bookshelf
L
David.
“What’s going on?” My mom, impatient,
demanded an explanation. “Are you joking?
You didn’t switch the babies?”
“I knew it! Who would actually mistake
‘change her diaper‘ for ‘switch my child‘?”
Susan sobbed louder. “No! I am your
daughter! Mom, Dad, how can you not
recognize me?”
“So that’s where you’ve been! Conning rich
people! You little brat! I’ll teach you a
lesson!”
く
“You think you deserve to be a rich man’s
daughter? You?!”
“And you dare accuse me of stealing a child?!
You know that’s a serious crime! You’re
going to pay for this!”
A rough–looking couple burst in.
The man grabbed Susan and dragged her
towards the door.
The woman, however, kept staring at me, her
eyes filled with tears, giving me the creeps.
David stepped in front of me, blocking her
view.
My mom kept hitting my dad. “Now’s not the
time for games! What’s going on?!”
“Mrs. Peterson, allow me to speculate…”
“Shut up!” My dad snapped at David. “You
little whippersnapper! You’re trying to steal
my wife, my daughter, and now you want to
steal my moment of glory? You’ve got some
nerve!”
Sensing the threat from David, my dad finally
revealed the truth.
While waiting for the DNA results, he’d been
investigating.
L
He’d checked hospital records, birth
certificates, everything. Combined with the
DNA results, he’d pieced together the real
story.
Susan’s parents had switched her and David.
Susan hadn’t lied about that.
But what they didn’t know was…
Susan cried all night in the hospital, waking
my mom constantly.
Finally, exhausted, my mom snapped, “Hank, go change her! Her crying is driving me
crazy!”
<
My dad, already annoyed by the crying baby
and always eager to please his wife,
wandered from room to room with Susan in
his arms.
There were five newborns on that floor. My
dad picked the one he liked best and brought
her back. Me.
Susan’s mom collapsed. “No! This can’t be!
This is too much of a coincidence!”
Her dad stared at his hands, then at Susan’s
bruised body, murmuring, “All these years…
I’ve been beating my own child?”
“No! You’re lying!”
<
“You think Susan is ruined, so you’re making
this up, aren’t you?!”
“I knew it! Rich families aren’t this easy to
fool! There should have been alarms!”
Susan’s mom’s face brightened. “You’re right,
dear! It must be a trick!”
“Uncle Hank, how can you be so sure Ashley
is your daughter? Just because of one DNA
test?” David sounded skeptical.
My dad smirked, pulling out a stack of
envelopes. “One test might be wrong, but not
all of these!”
L
He tossed them on the table.
I picked them up. Tests comparing my DNA to
my mom’s, my brother’s, my little brother’s.
Tests comparing Susan’s DNA to my mom’s,
my dad’s, my brothers‘.
Every single one confirmed I was a Peterson.
Susan’s face was ashen. She fainted.
Afterward, my dad called the police.
During his investigation, he discovered that Susan’s parents were suspected of child
trafficking.
<
After successfully switching Susan and David,
they’d figured, why not make a business out
of it?
The two geniuses actually started doing it.
And Susan’s resemblance to my mom? She’d
had plastic surgery before showing up.
She’d admitted to a 40% facial
reconstruction.
She’d been afraid that blood ties alone
wouldn’t be enough to displace me after two
decades, so she’d tried to stack the deck with
a similar face.
Didn’t work out so well with my dad’s
unconventional approach.
Susan’s parents were arrested.
Charged with child trafficking and now
kidnapping, they were facing a minimum of 15
years.
Susan, as an accomplice, was also facing
charges.
But her mom took the fall, claiming Susan
knew nothing about it.
Susan walked free.
<
Susan walked free.
But the day she got out, my dad had her
dragged to a plastic surgeon and her original
face restored.
So, when she showed up at my door, I didn’t
recognize her.
Until she screamed, “Why didn’t you die at
sea?!”
“You should have died! Then Mom and Dad
would have accepted me! David would be
mine!”
“This is all wrong! It shouldn’t be like this! |
was so close to happiness!”
“Real heiress or not, I’m supposed to be the
main character! Everyone should love and
protect me!”
“This isn’t right! This isn’t how it works in
novels! None of the books I read end like
this!”
I recorded her meltdown and sent it to my
mom.
“See? This is what happens when you read
too much fiction. It messes with your head.”
My mom, playing along, said, “I deleted
<
everything! I’m cured! Not reading anymore!”
“Ask Ethan! I haven’t made him act out any
scenes lately!”
“I’ve grown up, honey. Don’t worry.”
She sounded convincing.
But I heard that the real reason my dad was
so obsessed with Susan’s face was because
my mom had been telling everyone he’d
changed, fallen out of love with her, and
gotten himself a “replacement.”
Ethan, parroting her, called it “body double
literature.”
I didn’t comment. I just quietly had Susan
committed to the best mental hospital in
town.
I opened her Kindle app and deleted her
recent reads.
I heard Susan was having a rough time,
extremely unstable.
She apparently told the other patients, “This
isn’t real life. It’s a novel. I’m the villain.”
“I want to be good, but I don’t have a
choice.”
“You know why?”
く
“If I don’t cause drama, the author has no
plot, no word count. She can’t finish the
book.”
“Yeah, one of those crappy online writers.”
They said she’d even rant about herself in her
delusions. But sometimes, she was perfectly
lucid.
She even tried to send me messages, begging
me to get her out.
“Listen, don’t be catty! You’ll get hate for it!
Trust me!”
“If you help me, we’ll be girl help girl.”
Weird stuff. I didn’t get it.
No one took her seriously.
A doctor passed her bed, glanced at her
psych evaluation form, and turned to a nurse.
“Patient 9717, increase the dosage.”
