Giftchild Read Online Free

was trying not to let it be. "She's not using us," he said. "She's still the baby's mother."
    "Anna," I said.
    "Tina," he said. "She's naming her Tina."
    Tina . Where had that come from? "I can't believe this."
    "I know," Dad said. "We made a mistake, getting so close to her. I'm sorry."
    Getting close wasn't exactly the problem. "What is she going to do? She doesn't have anybody but us."
    Dad spoke slowly. This was the same voice he used to talk Mom down, when something like this went wrong. "I don't know, honey. That's not really any of our business."
    I chewed on my lip. None of our business? We were supposed to be like family now. And Lily was just going to walk away from that?
    Of course she was. She'd do it for her baby. Mom cried for weeks after the last one, but she said she understood. You didn't walk away from someone who had that tight a hold on you. You didn't just leave them with a stranger. She said placing a baby for adoption was the hardest thing in the world to do, because all your instincts said to take care of that baby, whatever the cost.
    But if Lily couldn't let go, knowing Mom, knowing how good a parent she was, practically being parented by Mom herself, who would?
    I sighed. "Is Mom okay?" Stupid question. "Don't answer that."
    Dad sounded tired. "We'll be home soon, okay?"
    "Okay," I said. Even though it wasn't.
    Dad hung up the phone; I glared at the ceiling.
    When I looked down, I found Rodney fiddling with his game system. "Things went bad?"
    "Yeah," I said. "Again." I stood up and walked into Anna's room—the nursery, as we would resume calling it—and pulled all the letters down off the wall. I stashed them in the top drawer of the dresser, on top of the perfectly folded rows of onesies. Then I turned off the light, and shut the door.
    I pulled mine closed as well, leaving only the necessary crack. Once Mom and Dad came home, we were allowed to be in my room as long as the door was open a little. I'd never say this to them, but the rule didn't matter. We could close doors at Rodney's house all we wanted.
    But today, Mom and Dad weren't going to be thinking about rules. They'd only be thinking about what they'd lost.
    Then I reached for my camera and started deleting the photos of Anna. Mom could never see these.
    I never wanted to see them again.
    Then I picked up my phone to call Athena. "Did you hear?" I asked when she answered.
    "Yeah. Dad texted me. Do you think I need to come over?"
    "Probably not," I said. "I'm hiding in my room with Rodney. You don't really want to be here, do you?"
    "I don't," Athena said. "But I don't want to abandon you there, either. You want to come have a sleepover? I'll let you take the bed."
    "I'll be okay," I said. "I'll just make Rodney stay for a while."
    He nodded at me. Of course he'd stay. That wasn't even a question.
    "I wish Mom hadn't done this to you," Athena said. "It's not fair."
    I groaned. "She's not doing it to me," I said. "Lily is doing this to her."
    "I guess," Athena said. "But it was Mom's idea to let her into your lives."
    I closed my eyes. Athena always said that Mom was looking for another daughter because we weren't enough. I knew it stung that Mom practically replaced Athena just as she was leaving the house, what with Lily being around all the time. But I didn't care if we were enough for Mom or not.
    I just wanted the crying to stop.
    "You should call Mom tomorrow," I said. "Lily will change her mind."
    "Don't count on it," Athena said. "And don't say that to Mom."
    "I won't," I said. It was probably wrong to get her hopes up. Though at this point, if she didn't have hope, what did she have?
    Nothing but pain, that's what.
    "Call me if you want to get out. Day or night."
    "Done."
    Then I turned off the phone. "I'll be right back," I told Rodney. Then I moved through the house, turning off the ringer on all the phones. The last thing Mom needed was every friend and family member calling to congratulate her on the new baby. If Dad was