Priceless
My so–called real parents showed up at the
door. This girl, clinging to my mom’s leg,
sobbing, claiming she was the real McCoy,
the actual biological daughter.
My mom was stunned.
My brother, too.
Me? Totally dumbfounded.
My brother, ever the action man, immediately
declared we were all getting DNA tests.
My mom, legs wobbly, called my dad. “Hank,
get home now! I think we have the wrong
daughter!”
My dad’s response was bizarrely calm. “Yeah,
I know.”
“You know?”
“Well, didn’t you tell me to swap her out
because she cried too much and was
annoying? So, I swapped her for one that
didn’t cry.”
“I told you to change her diaper!” My mom’s
shriek practically blew the roof off.
I was halfway through a work project when
my mom walked in, looking grave.
く
“Ashley, there’s something I can’t hide from
you anymore.”
“You’re… not our biological child. We’ve
loved you like our own all these years, and it
breaks our hearts to do this, but…”
“Your real parents have found you. They’re
downstairs right now.”
I watched her cry, silent.
“And my real daughter… the one I never got
to meet… she looks just like me.”
She buried her face in her hands, sobbing.
<
“Now that she’s back, I have to send you
back. I hope you won’t hate me.”
