And I finally understood why.
None of us were cut from the same cloth. I had morals and a fucking conscience. I believed in shit like right and wrong.
Carter’s eyes narrowed, bouncing from me to Angie and back to me. “No shit,” Carter muttered, staring at me in a different light. “That’s why you look just like her. I had a hunch.”
I rolled my eyes. “Please, don’t pretend you hadn’t figured it out.”
“I hadn’t,” he said mildly. “But I’m guessing the Elite did. It’s on their little thumb drive, isn’t it? All the gritty details. Imagine what that would do to this family—to your mother if it got out.”
“She is not my mother.” The statement was laced with venom, all the anger built up since I found out burning in my words.
“Josephine.” Angie took a seat at my desk, sinking into the chair like a fragile porcelain doll about to shatter into a million pieces. Was this part of her act, a ploy for sympathy? Her breathing grew rapid, a delicate hand resting over her heart. The realization that the truth couldn’t be buried seeped into her bones.
I steeled myself, refusing to find compassion or empathy for her. She didn’t deserve it. And yet my heart still twinged inside. “Is that even my name? Or was that the name of the baby you lost? Do you even know my real name?”
“Mikayla,” she whispered.
I hadn’t expected her to answer me, let alone give me the truth.Mikayla. The name boomeranged inside my head and a weight I’d been bearing for weeks—for my entire life finally lifted off me. Hearing my name, an admission of the truth from Angie, set me free.
I’d been kidnapped as a baby.
“Holy. Fucking. Shit. Wait until my dad hears this.”
“Carter!” Angie snapped, her head whipping up, defeat no longer glimmering sadly in her eyes. Hardness. Desperation. Panic reflected in them now, a woman who would do anything—anything—to save the life she’d fought so hard to obtain by any means necessary. She would not go down without one hell of a fight. “Your father should hear this from me,” she said, leveling out her voice and schooling her features.
I snorted. “So you can weave more lies? Does it never end?”
She looked at me now. “This isn’t simple, Josephine. Not for me.”
“What about me? Do you have any idea what it is like to find out that your entire life is a lie? That I have an entire family I know nothing about?” I let all the anguish and hurt seep into my voice.
“Stop,” Angie whispered. “That is just not true. I loved you. I love you still. You are my daughter. It doesn’t matter that we don’t share blood. You will always be mine.”
“I am not a possession. You don’t own me. Were you ever going to tell me the truth?”
“No,” she stated flatly.
Another truth. The blows kept going. This was what I wanted, but still hearing it wasn’t easy. “This is some serious shit. You actually stole a baby.” I wanted her to understand the deep impact that decision had on not just my life, but hers as well. She was damn lucky she’d gotten away with it and wasn’t behind bars.
A heavy sigh left her chest. “It was all a long time ago. I was only thirty-four weeks pregnant. She came too early.” The story poured out of her as if she had waited almost eighteen years to unload this secret she had kept to herself. Her gaze was focused just past my shoulder like she was reliving those moments that happened nearly eighteen years ago. “But she was a little fighter and she seemed to be doing okay, which was why her sudden death was such a shock to me.” She took a deep breath, Carter and I remaining quiet as we waited. “The hospital had been in a buzz the day I’d given birth. Another mother came in pregnant with triplets. The three of them were born just a few hours after my little girl. But less than twenty-four hours later, I lost her. I just kept thinking, why does she deserve three? Why had my little girl’s life been taken, yet all three of them lived? It wasn’t fair.”
“So you decided to take one of them?” My sharp voice cracked through the room.
“It wasn’t planned. It just happened,” she defended, her gaze finally connecting back to mine. “An emergency broke out that sent the nurses in the nursey out in a rush. Moments after they left, my little girl just suddenly stopped breathing in my arms. I hit the help button, called out for someone to help. I even tried to revive her myself. But it was too late. She was gone. Before I knew what I was doing, I switched out the ID bracelets and swapped you with my baby, laying her little body in the incubator. Letting go of her, saying goodbye was the hardest thing I’d ever done. But then you looked up at me with those dark eyes. You became mine. I loved you instantly.”
“Is that supposed to make it okay?” How this woman had ever raised me I’d never understand. Did she not have a remorseful bone in her body? No conscious?
Lightning zapped across the dark sky outside the windows. “You don’t understand. You don’t know what it's like to lose a daughter.” Her eyes pleaded with me.
But my resolve didn’t waver. “No, I don’t. But I do know what it’s like to never have something. I have a brother and a sister. You took them from me.”
“I can’t lose you too. I can’t.” Her voice trembled.
“You already have.” I didn’t care how many times the cops brought me back. I couldn’t stay here. Not any longer.
I had to leave.
“You don’t mean that,” she said, the words breaking over a sob. Tears glossed her eyes.