“You aren’t listening to me, Marlie. I am their daughter. Their flesh and blood.” She jabbed her fingers into her chest as she shouted, “Me! I was theirs. You were just some kid they took in.”
Enraged by her declaration, I stood and took a step over to her. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Oh, come on. Don’t stand there and act like you didn’t know!”
“What exactly are you saying?”
“How do you not know this?” She took a strand of her hair in her hand as she spat, “I mean, really. I have blonde hair and blue eyes just like Mom, and you have dark hair and dark eyes.”
I didn’t know if it was the fact that I didn’t believe what she was implying or the fact I didn’t want to believe it, but I needed her to spell it out for me. It was the only way my brain would fully accept the insanity she was dishing out. “Are you trying to say I’m adopted?”
“Ummm, yeah. Duh! God, you can be so thick-brained sometimes,” she grumbled as she walked into my living room and snatched our family portrait from the mantle. She lifted it with the photograph facing me. “It’s time to face the fact. You’re not a Davenport. Never have been. Never will be. Clearly, you can’t even play the part. Just don’t have the genes for it.”
“It has nothing to do with genes. I was never given the chance to be a real Davenport. You’re the one who got all the lavish clothes, drove the fancy car, and found a way to take whatever small scraps were tossed in my direction. When that wasn’t enough, you found a way to steal what few friends I had. God forbid, I actually brought a guy around. Hell, you’d snatch him up in a second. I had nothing. You made sure of that. You all did.”
“Oh, well, let’s just have ourselves a little pity party, why don’t we?” She propped her backside against the counter as she crossed her arms and snarled, “You’ve always been sooo good at that. God, you were constantly whining about something ... trying to make Mom feel guilty for ev-ery-thing she ever did for me. It was insane. You leaving was the best thing that ever happened to us.”
“Then why are you even here?” I snapped. “If you were so happy to see me gone, which you clearly were, why not just leave me the hell alone! It’s not like I asked you here. I certainly didn’t ask for any of this!”
“To be honest, it was Eric’s idea. I tried to tell him it was a waste of time, but he insisted. He’s so enamored with me, he wanted to know everything there was to know about me, even if that included my estranged sister.” Every word out of her mouth cut me like a knife, but I swallowed back my tears, refusing to let Kate see she’d upset me. Not that it mattered. It was pretty clear she didn’t care as she shrugged with indifference. “I tried to talk him out of it, but when he insisted, I figured we could play the old family card one last time, and from what I can tell, it’s worked so far.”
“Well, it’s over now. I’m done playing charades for you and your little boyfriend.” I pointed to the door and told her, “It’s time for you to go.”
“There’s no reason for this to change anything, Marlie. We’re still the same people we were ten minutes ago.”
“Yeah, you’re still a royal bitch. That’s never going to change.” Boiling with a mix of rage and heartbreak, I pointed to the door as I ordered, “Don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya.”
“Oh, for goodness sake. You really are second class.”
Her heels clomped across the kitchen tile as she stormed out. Once she’d gone, I went over and slammed the door behind her. Then, and only then, I let the tears fall, and man, oh man, did they fall. Feeling like my whole world had been turned upside down, I sobbed and sobbed. I don’t know how long I’d been crying when I finally made my way into the living room. I picked up one of our family photos off the mantle and carried it over to the sofa. I sat there studying the way Kate sat in Mom’s lap and how Mom and Dad had their arms around her, adoring her, while I stood off to the side like I was just there—imposing on their special moment, and it was like everything suddenly became so clear. I wasn’t crazy. They did love and adore Kate more than they did me, and I guess they had every right to do so. She was their child, their own flesh and blood, and I was just some stranger they’d brought into their home. I just didn’t understand why they’d never told me.