Free Stranger With My Face by Lois Duncan Page B

way I did you. I picked you out. He
     was an unknown.” She smiled slightly. “Of course, that was a ridiculous worry. Neal and Megan were meant to be ours just the
     way you were.”
    “How could you have gotten pregnant later if your ovaries weren’t working?” I asked her, almost accusingly.
    “We don’t know,” Dad said, speaking for her. “The doctors couldn’t give us any explanation. Maybe they made a mistake in their
     diagnosis, or maybe there were hormonal changes in your mother’s body. Who knows? There again, what does it matter? We’re
     here—we’re a family. Now that you know your background, there’s nothing left for you to wonder about. Can’t we just file this
     away and go on with our normal lives?”
    “It’s not that easy,” I said. “I want to find my twin.”
    “This is just what I was afraid of!” Mom exclaimed. “It’s the reason I didn’t want you to know. You can’t just accept it,
     can you? Oh, no. You’ve got to want more; you have to find out about these people who aren’t anything to you.”
    “The girl is my sister.”
    “Megan is your sister!”
    “Meg is my adoptive sister,” I said bitterly, accentuating the word. “I want to know about my real, blood sister.”
    “You’re just trying to hurt us.” Mom’s voice was rising. “You’re trying to punish us for not telling you before.”
    “Easy now, Shelly,” Dad said soothingly, laying a restraining hand on her arm. “It’s natural for Laurie to react this way.
     It’s a shock to discover there’s a part of your past you weren’t aware of.”
    “But now she wants to throw out the people who’ve loved and raised her and go out hunting for perfect strangers!”
    “I want to know about my sister,” I repeated. How dare my mother put me on the defensive this way, when it was she and Dad
     who had created the situation?
    “Aren’t you even curious how I found out about her? It’s because she comes to me at night.”
    “Oh, Laurie—” Dad began.
    “You don’t believe me? You think I’m lying?”
    “I think you’re very upset,” Dad said.
    “Of course I am. I’m upset because the two people I trusted most in the world have deceived me all my life, and I’m upset
     because this sister—this Lia—has been visiting me at night, stirring around my dreams, appearing places where people think
     she’s me. Remember, Dad, when you thought you saw me going up to my room, and I wasn’t even in the house? That was Lia. She
     went to my room. She looked through my things. She sat on my bed. When I entered the room later, I could feel her there. Then,
     when Helen spent the night—”
    “Make her stop, Jim,” Mom pleaded. “I can’t take any more of this. You see now how right I was, don’t you? We never should
     have told her.”
    “You wouldn’t have if I hadn’t forced you,” I reminded her. “If you don’t believe me about Lia’s visits, then how do you think
     I found out about her?”
    “Obviously, you must have gone through the file cabinet and found the adoption papers,” Dad said. “Get a grip on yourself,
     Laurie. Overdramatizing isn’t going to accomplish anything. Your mother and I feel bad enough about this already. So, you’re
     adopted. So, you’re angry because we didn’t tell you sooner. All right, then—you’re angry. Perhaps you have a right to be.
     But there’s one thing you’ll have to admit if you’re honest. It’s that we love you. Any mistakes we may have made were made
     for that reason. You don’t doubt that, do you?”
    I was silent for a moment. Then I had to answer, “No.”
    As furious as I was at them, I did not doubt that they loved me.

And because of that—because they loved me, and I knew it, and they knew I knew it—we could not stay estranged. We were awkward with each other for a day or so,
     but it subsided. It was especially hard to remain aloof when the kids were around. I looked at Megan, bustling about in that
     funny,