My Family Saved Their Adopted Daughter First, Then I Died Before Their Eyes novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Porch

Two neighbors stood on the next dock over with their coffee, pretending to look at the water.

Marian saw them and smiled at them across the lawn.

"Brody," she called. "Take Birdie down to see the ducks."

My brother had been standing at the corner of the porch with his hands hanging. He looked at me.

Then he lifted Birdie out of my mother's arms, and she went with him without a word.

"Nellie, come see the ducks," Birdie called over his shoulder.

"In a minute, bug."

I watched them to the bottom of the lawn. When they were far enough away, I turned back.

"She is my daughter, Mom."

My mother tilted her head.

"I'm sorry?"

"Birdie. Six years ago in March you told me my baby died. Brody carried her out of the clinic in a laundry basket, and you took her home."

Down at the neighbors' dock, a coffee cup stopped halfway to someone's mouth.

"Brody has been drinking since he was twenty-five," my mother said, in a clear carrying voice. "Everyone in this town knows it. I have driven him home from every wedding he's ever ruined. You'd take his word?"

"I have the bracelet."

"A plastic bracelet. Anyone can buy one."

"It has my name on it."

"Sweetheart, you work with ledgers. You can print a name on anything."

"I'm her father," Eli said.

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