Not Their child

Selene

"Mom. I am home!" 

I said, my voice a little higher than usual trying to hide how excited I was. I did not get a reply from my mom like I used to whenever I came over, which was quite unusual.

I was just getting back from the hospital, where I found out I was pregnant. Finally. I came home after my parents called me because I wanted to tell them the good news about the baby. When I got home the house was really quiet and that was weird. I was expecting everyone to be happy and talking. Why was everywhere so silent?

The entire residence was shrouded in silence, the grandfather clock in the hallway had suddenly stopped ticking, and I couldn't help but feel a shiver run down my spine.

I walked slowly. My heart was beating slowly in my chest. I thought something bad had happened to my family. The hair on my arms stood up.. Then I saw them. They were sitting in their usual spot. Dad was sitting in his rocking chair and mum was sitting at the edge of the sofa. They both did not have a smile on their faces. Something was definitely wrong. They always smiled, laughed even made jokes when I visited them.. Not this time.

“Mom. What's wrong?" I asked as I walked closer, and she looked up but as soon as she caught my eyes, she turned away.

My chest tightened. I had never seen my mum look like that in twenty eight years, not even when my grandma died. What on earth could have gone so wrong with my mum?

I crouched down to her level, grasping her hand. “Mom…” I said but before I could finish she spoke.

"I'm not your mom”

My hand slowly pulled away from hers. I thought to myself where did that come from? How was that even possible for her to say that? I tried to understand what her words meant. I just could not.. Then a light laugh came out of my mouth.

Mum's eyebrows climbed towards her hairline, shocked, but not surprised at my reaction. “Is this one of your usual jokes? I must say you really had me with this one."

I said, letting out another chuckle, trying to convince myself of the reasoning I just gave. But my hands were shaking, and the smile on my face felt wrong. I just couldn't shake off the feeling that something was wrong, terribly wrong.

“I'm not joking." My mom said, her face stern and void of emotions. “The nurse who handled my delivery got arrested a few months ago for misconduct, and after listening to her confession we realised there might have been some switch up." She stated, and I could feel my heart pounding in my ears. I wanted to stop her, tell her that the joke was already getting too serious but her words broke my illusion.

“We didn't pursue it because we weren't ready to let you go. But just a few days ago, your grandfather called us."

He had seen the news. He told us that we had to bring our legitimate child home. At first we didn't want to do it.. Then we thought about it some more, and we decided that we should find out if the child was really ours. We did a DNA test on her and that was when we figured it out. She stopped talking and looked at Dad. She wanted a signal from him to say it was okay for her to keep talking. When Dad nodded she said the rest of what she had to say. "You are not our daughter Selene, " she said 

I swallowed hard on nothing, her last words ringing in my ears. ‘You’re not our daughter’ the words made my head throb so badly I feared I might faint.

"We're really sorry cupcake. And we've been trying to find your parents…” Dad said, his voice carrying empathy but not the love he had always had to me.

His words were like noise in my ears and the only thing I could see was the memory of our times together. I remembered mum being really nice to me on my prom night as she was gently touching my hair. I also remembered the surprises on my birthday, how excited I was to open my gifts on Christmas morning with mum and dad. How could all these memories be fake?

We still think of you as our daughter. We just thought it was important for you to know this. We will not love you any less just because you're not our real daughter.

I nodded slowly, accepting reality. They had already done so much for me, what kind of person would I be if I couldn't accept their own real daughter.

"Congratulations on finding her." I stopped talking for a moment. They both looked at me with confused faces. They just kept staring at me. After a few seconds. They snapped back but before they could say anything I spoke up. "When will I get to see her?”

Mom’s face froze as she heard me finish, she turned towards dad, who looked equally surprised...but disappointed. She was silent for a moment, and a smile followed.

In a few days we will throw a welcome party for her, she said, but her words became unclear to me.

A welcome party. They were going to announce it to the world that I wasn't their daughter but rather someone they had never raised. The thought of it made my heart ache but what did I expect? For them to only take her back and not try to make it up to her?

I smiled through the ache and spoke. "Oh... Well, sounds great I guess. Tell me when it will be happening.” I paused. I could feel the warmth of my tears falling down on my cheeks. I just couldn't control my emotions. I was feeling nauseated, but not from the pregnancy.

 Mom told me to wait for dinner, but in all honesty, I really wanted to get out of the house. I was having trouble breathing, my lungs were not getting any air. Everything about the house was making me feel that way

I have to get home. I also have a family now. My eyes lit up right away.

I have a family of my own now. A smile started to grow on my face, even though I could never in a million years fathom what had just happened earlier. I walked out of the house. My hand was gently resting on my still flat  belly.

“When my child is born, I'd finally regain my full happiness, I guess” Losing the family I grew up with would not be so bad. My child is my family now. I have my child to take care of. That was all that mattered.

I went straight to my car and drove away fast.

I stopped my car few metres away from Xavier's office. Then I remembered something. I was not supposed to tell Xavier about the pregnancy. I felt really frustrated. My palm hit the steering wheel so hard, the horn startled a passerby. 

At least Xavier would be happy to hear this news.

I was already here, it wouldn't make sense for me to just turn back. I walked in, plastering a smile on my face but the employees seemed rather displeased to see me. No, they looked scared.

His assistant looked at me in surprise when she jumped after I said hello. I wondered if there was something on my face. Was I doing something that made the employees act like this? I thought about it for a moment. Did I have Something on my face that I did not know about?

Whatever weird energy this office had on today was none of my problems. I did not want to think about the energy that was in this office.

Xavier's door was right in front of me. It was made of oak and had his name carved into it in brass. My hands were on the door handle. I took a breath before I opened the door to his office. 

“Babe, what's wrong with your…” I cut short my words immediately, the sight before my eyes leaving me at a loss for words.. 

"What the hell"!