- 4.
Susan frowned. “Lily, don’t talk about Maggie
like that. We owe her so much.”
Richard dismissed the media and the
employees.
He walked over to Lily and gave her a look.
“Lily, watch what you say in public. What kind
of socialite uses language like that?”
Lily pouted. “Okay, Mom, Dad.”
Then she changed the subject. “If she doesn’t
want to come home, maybe we should just
forget about it. Foster parents are more
Torget about it. Foster parents are more
important than real parents, anyway. She
thinks of Carol as her mom. Like me, even if
my real parents showed up, I’d only see you
two as my parents.”
Susan looked uncomfortable. She said, “It’s
not the same. We raised you from a baby.
Maggie’s foster mom is poor. She probably
went without in that house.”
She opened the scrapbook.
The first picture was of me at five years old,
in ratty clothes, helping Carol shuck corn.
Richard looked at the picture. He and Susan
both teared up.
The picture reminded them of when I was
kidnapped.
When I was born, my parents were just
starting their business.
One weekend when I was three, they took me
and my brother Mark to an amusement park.
Mark wanted to ride the Ferris wheel. I was
too small.
Mom was going to stay with me, but Mark
started whining. “I want Mom and Dad with
- me. Dad can sit on my left, Mom can sit on
my right.”
My parents said no at first, saying I was too
little, and one of them needed to stay with
- me.
Mark threw a tantrum, and my parents gave
- in.
They left me at a snack stand, telling me not
to wander off.
The snack stand was packed. The cashier
didn’t have time to watch me.
Mark was laughing on the Ferris wheel.
Dad sat to his left, Mom sat to his right.
The three of them watched some stranger
snatch me and disappear into the crowd.
They were horrified, but there was nothing
<
By the time they got off the Ferris wheel, I
was gone.
My parents flipped through the pictures,
wiping their eyes.
The scrapbook showed me growing up poor.
They thought of Lily, who had been a dirty
little orphan.
After they adopted her, they showered her
with everything.
They tried to make up for what happened to
me, by spoiling Lily.
They gave her everything she wanted. That’s
why she was such a brat.
Every picture seemed to be saying that me
and Lily had switched lives.
I was supposed to be the one who got
spoiled. But instead, I lived in poverty.
Lily rolled her eyes. She knew the scrapbook
would make me look good in front of my
parents.
く
She snatched the scrapbook and closed it.
“Mom, Dad, stop looking at it. She doesn’t
even want to know you. It’s making you upset.
I’ll burn it for you.”
