Chapter 4

My hand tightened on the suitcase handle, and my steps slowed.

Don't worry, Mom. I never borrow money from anyone, because I know I could never pay it back.

Once I was out the door, with barely any money on me, all I could afford was a twenty-five-hour ride in a cheap coach seat to Harbor City.

I got on, leaned against the window to rest, and the woman beside me pulled up some short drama on her phone. She turned to the man next to her.

"Honey, if our daughter got swapped with someone else's daughter at the hospital, would you switch them back once you found out?"

He answered without a second's hesitation. "Of course I'd switch her back. You even have to ask?"

"But the other family's daughter has been raised right here with us. We've grown attached to her!"

"Then we'll just raise both."

"And if the other family won't hand ours over?"

"Then I'd have no choice but to pick my own flesh and blood."

"This is awful. I couldn't bear to give up either one."

Listening to them, I thought back to the year I turned nine.

Mom and Dad came to see me in secret, but they wouldn't claim me. They only knew how to press money into my hands.

With that money, I bought the snacks I never let myself buy and hid them under the bed. My brother in that family dug them out.

When the couple who raised me found out and tracked down my birth parents, that was when everyone learned the babies had been swapped.

Only then did Mom and Dad decide to bring me home, and they paid a staggering price to keep Millicent in the Henson family.

The day I came back to the unfamiliar Henson house, Mom didn't comfort me first, uneasy as I was. She held Millicent and comforted her instead.

"Millie, we only claimed her because we had no choice. Having her won't make your father and me love you any less."

"You're the baby we raised with our own hands. Your father and I will love you forever."

That night, their talking woke me. Dad said,

"Sweetheart, I've realized I like Millie more than Patricia."

"She was ours to raise, and she takes after us. That timid look Patricia has, honestly, it just won't do in company. You'll have to work on her."

Mom agreed. "After all this, I finally understand. The child you raise yourself is the one you feel close to."

"..."

Back at the Henson mansion just then, Mom glanced at the sky outside and muttered,

"It's already dark, and she still hasn't come back. Since when did she have such a temper?"

My brother spoke up.

"Relax, Mom. I've told all my friends. Not one of them is going to lend her money just because I'm her brother."

Millicent added smugly,

"She barely has any friends at school, and my friends definitely won't lend her a cent. She's probably on her way back already."

Then Dad suddenly shouted from the study,

"Sweetheart, come look. This is bizarre. The watch I bought for Patricia isn't missing at all. It's still sitting right here in my drawer."

Mom called out as she hurried over, "What? That's impossible. That watch just now was the one you bought."

When they all crowded into the study and saw two watches, both in unopened packaging, no one could get out a word.

Dad was quiet for a moment, then smacked his own forehead in frustration.

"If only I'd come back and checked the study sooner."

Mom blamed him too. "Look at you. Over one little thing, you drove her out of the house."

My brother murmured, "So Patricia isn't a thief. She really did buy it herself."

That last part struck Mom and Dad like a jolt.

"So that thing she said about being a clinical trial volunteer, could that be true too?"

"Mom, Dad, no way. If you don't believe me, I'll call her right now."