A Child Made of Lies

Who Am I

"We should never have adopted you!" Their words rang through my head over and over, even though it had been almost an hour since they had said it. Adopted. I was adopted. All those jokes people had made my entire life were true, but my comeback was invalid. I had always replied 'well at least my parents wanted me' but it wasn't true. They no longer wanted me. Words like mom, dad, and family felt foreign to me now, and left a bitter taste in my mouth. Who were my real parents? Who was I really? I hear my 'parents' banging on my door, trying to get in, shouting apologies and saying it was just a joke, but it was too late. From inside my closet, I really thought about it for the first time. Blonde hair and blue eyes are both recessive traits, and everyone in my family for generations had brown eyes and hair. My facial shape is completely different, and I was already taller than my older 'brother'. I blinked tears out of my eyes, fighting the voices in my head calling me an idiot for not having realized sooner. The walls had started to shake as my 'parents' attempted to knock my door down. I curled up smaller into myself and dug my long nails into my arms. The door fell off of its hinges, and my brother rushed into my room, followed by my parents. The doors to the closet were thrust open, and 3 sets of arms enveloped me and stayed there no matter how hard I pushed them away. I collapsed, sobbing, into their arms, and my dad carried me down to the couch while mom made hot chocolate. Dad set me down on the couch, swaddled me in a blanket, and opened a hidden panel above the mantel that I hadn't known was there. He pulled out a white photo album, and sat down next to me. The man who had once been my father opened the album and turned to me, his gruff voice cracking, "I think its time you learned your real family history."