“See? Proof,” he had said.
I stared at it, feeling like something was missing. But I had no reason to doubt him. Why would I?
Then I met Matt.
He saw through me in a way no one else had. “You don’t talk about your family much,” he observed one night.
I shrugged. “There’s not much to say.”
But there was. There was so much I had buried deep inside me—the orphanage visits every year on my birthday, where my dad would point at the children and remind me how lucky I was. The way he talked about my “real parents” like I was a burden passed off to him. The whispers of my classmates, asking if I’d ever be “sent back.”
“Have you ever looked into your past?” Matt asked me one evening.
“No. My dad already told me everything.”
“Are you sure?”
That question haunted me.
So, for the first time in my life, I decided to find out the truth.
Matt and I drove to the orphanage where my dad said I had been adopted. My hands trembled as we stepped inside. An older woman greeted us with a warm smile, asking how she could help.
“I was adopted from here when I was three,” I explained, my voice shaking. “I’d like to find out more about my birth parents.”
She nodded and began typing into her computer. I held my breath as the seconds stretched into minutes. Her frown deepened. She checked again. Then she pulled out an old binder, flipping through the pages.
Finally, she looked up, her expression unreadable.
“I’m sorry,” she said slowly. “We have no record of you here.”
The air left my lungs. “What?”
“Are you sure this is the right orphanage?”
“Yes!” I insisted, my voice rising. “This is the place. My dad took me here every year. He showed me this place!”
She shook her head. “If you had been here, we would have records. But there’s nothing. I’m so sorry.”
I felt like the ground had been ripped out from under me.
The car ride home was silent. Matt kept glancing at me, his concern obvious, but I couldn’t speak.
“Are you okay?” he finally asked.
I stared out the window. “No. I need answers.”
And I knew exactly where to get them.
When we pulled up to my dad’s house, I didn’t hesitate. I marched up the steps and pounded on the door.
He opened it, his face lined with surprise. “Hey, what are you doing here?”
“I went to the orphanage,” I said, my voice shaking with fury. “They don’t have any record of me. Why would they say that?”
For a moment, he didn’t move. Then, he let out a long, weary sigh and stepped back. “Come in.”
I barely waited for him to sit down before I demanded, “Tell me the truth. Right now.”
He rubbed a hand over his face, looking suddenly older. “I knew this day would come.”
“What are you talking about?” I snapped. “Why did you lie to me?”
He was silent for so long that my pulse roared in my ears. Then, in a voice so low I almost didn’t hear him, he said the words that shattered everything I had ever known.
“You weren’t adopted. You’re your mother’s child… but not mine.”
My heart stopped. “What?”
“She had an affair,” he admitted, his voice bitter. “When she got pregnant, she begged me to stay. I agreed, but I couldn’t look at you without seeing what she did to me. So I made up the adoption story.”
The room spun. “You… you lied to me for my entire life?”
He wouldn’t meet my eyes. “I was angry. I thought… maybe if you believed you weren’t mine, it would be easier for me to accept. Maybe I wouldn’t hate her so much. It was stupid. I’m sorry.”
I was shaking. “You faked the adoption papers?”
“Yes.”
The betrayal was suffocating. The teasing, the comments, the orphanage visits—it was never about me. It was about him. His pain. His resentment.
I stood up, my legs unsteady beneath me. “I can’t do this,” I whispered. “I was just a kid. I didn’t deserve this.”
“I know,” he said, his voice breaking. “I know I failed you.”
Matt stood too, his jaw tight as he glared at my father. “Come on,” he said softly. “Let’s go.”
As we walked to the door, my dad’s voice called after me. “I’m sorry! I really am!”
But I didn’t turn around.
For the first time in my life, I was walking away from the past. And this time, I wasn’t looking back.
