They Said I Was Adopted, but I Was Always the Real Daughter novel · Chapter 14 of 24
Chapter 14: Day Zero
Paulina held the phone against the blanket and pressed play.
The recording began with a door closing and the click of heels on tile.
"Mom," my sister's voice said, small and close. "Tell Inés. Please. Before she finds it out from a stranger."
"Turn that off."
"She's going to the records office. I know she is."
"Then you will be very quiet when she gets there," my mother said.
I had never heard her voice without the smile in it.
Without the smile it was flat and quick.
"I told you the rule the night of the bear, Paulina. Nobody knows. Not her, not your grandmother, not the cousins."
"She's your daughter."
"She is strong. She will be fine, with or without anyone's help. She was always going to be fine."
There was a silence on the tape, and a small sound that might have been my sister swallowing.
"You say nothing," my mother said, "or you are no longer mine."
Then the door again, and the heels going away.
Paulina touched the screen, and the room was quiet except for the pump on my pole.
I thought I would feel something clean.
I felt like I'd swallowed a stone.
"She said I'd be fine," I said.
"I know."
"She said it like a receipt."
"I know." Paulina's mask was wet at the edges. "I should have played it for you the same night. I wanted to, and I was afraid of her. I'm still afraid of her."
"Send it to Gael's computer," I said. "And to Abuela, and to Dad. Not just to me."
"I already did."
"Then you can go."
She stood up slowly.
At the door she turned as if she wanted to say something else, and I looked at the wall until she left.
That wasn't kindness, and I knew it.
It was the best I had.
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