Two Families, No Home for Me Chapter 01

Two Families, No Home for Me Chapter 01

On my eighteenth birthday, I found out I had been switched at birth. 

My first thought was, This is amazing. Now I have two families. 

Then all four of my parents sat down for a family meeting 

and unanimously decided that Sophie Bennett deserved all their love. 

My biological parents said they’d raised her for eighteen 

years. They couldn’t bear to let her go. 

The parents who had raised me said she’d been separated 

from them for eighteen years. They had to make it up to her. 

And me? 

No one mentioned me. 

Then they discovered Sophie and I shared the same birthday, 

so they immediately threw us a joint birthday party. 

The Hayes family gave Sophie eighteen gifts to make up for the eighteen birthdays they’d missed. 

The Bennetts gave her another eighteen to commemorate the eighteen years they’d spent raising her. 

Thirty–six gifts covered the table. 

In front of me sat a single plate of birthday pancakes. 

As the party wound down, I quietly asked, “So… which home am I going to tonight?” 

Rachel Bennett, my biological mother, lowered her head and kept cutting Sophie’s cake. 

Laura Hayes, the woman I’d called Mother my entire life, hesitated for a second. 

You’ve always been independent, Tessa. Mother knows you can take care of yourself.” 

I smiled and nodded. 

Then I looked down at the college acceptance letter in my 

hands and silently made my eighteenth–birthday wish. 

From now on, I would never look back. 

The moment I finished making my wish, lightning flashed 

beyond the ballroom windows. 

Thunder rolled across the sky. 

Summer rain came crashing down, quickly turning the glass 

into a shimmering sheet of water. 

Laura was helping Sophie open her last gift. 

Inside was a dress. 

She held it against Sophie and smiled when she saw it was a perfect fit. 

Rachel came over with the cake and reminded them to take 

pictures before the frosting melted. 

Daniel Hayes and Michael Bennett competed over who could 

adjust the lighting better. 

All four of them were so busy that no one looked at me again. 

My pancakes had already collapsed. The candle had fallen 

sideways across the plate. 

I set down my fork and knife. 

Laura seemed to glance in my direction. waited. 

Two seconds later, her gaze passed right over me. 

She reached up and tucked Sophie’s loose hair behind her ear instead. 

“Soph should come home with us tonight,” Laura said, taking 

her hand. “We’ve already fixed up your room. You should at least see the house.” 

Rachel immediately objected. 

She’s been through enough today. She should stay 

$omewhere familiar tonight. She’ll have plenty of time to visit you later.” 

“But we only just got her back,” Daniel said. 

“We raised her for eighteen years,” Michael countered. 

They were arguing over which bed Sophie would sleep in. 

No one answered my question. 

Sophie peeked through the group. 

“Tessa, do you want to…” 

“Soph, look at the camera.” 

Daniel called her back. 

“Let’s get one with Soph and all four parents first.” 

picked up my college acceptance letter and walked out of the ballroom. 

There was only one umbrella left by the entrance, a black one with a broken rib. 

A server asked whether I wanted to wait for the rain to ease. 

Through the glass doors, I saw the five of them already pressed together. 

A camera flashed. 

pushed open the door and stepped into the rain. 

My white skirt was soaked within minutes. 

I held my college acceptance letter against my chest, but one corner still got wet. 

I didn’t go to the Hayes home. 

I didn’t go to the Bennett home either, whose address I’d only learned that day. 

Instead, I took the last bus of the night to a twenty–four–hour 

study lounge near my old high school. 

For the rest of my eighteenth birthday, I bought the cheapest. 

overnight seat they had. 

The fluorescent light above the desk was painfully bright. 

Cold air from the vent blew against my soaked clothes, 

making them cling to my back. 

When I opened my phone, I saw a new group chat. 

It was called Our Family. 

Six members. 

Not one missing. 

There were already more than forty messages. 

Videos of Sophie opening presents. 

Pictures of both mothers feeding her cake at the same time. 

Photos of both fathers competing to carry her things. 

One after another. 

No one asked where I was. 

At one in the morning, Sophie finally sent a message. 

[Tessa, did you get home?] 

Laura replied first. 

[The Bennetts probably picked her up. Tessa always knows what she’s doing.] 

A few minutes later, Rachel wrote: 

(I thought she went home with the Hayeses. But Tessa’s independent. We don’t need to worry about her.] 

I opened the text box. 

[I didn’t go home.] 

My finger hovered over Send for a long time. 

Then I deleted the sentence one letter at a time. 

A notification from my incoming freshmen group chat appeared. 

The university was recruiting orientation volunteers. Anyone 

accepted could move into temporary campus housing a week early. 

I filled out the application and moved my arrival date forward seven days. 

Seven days. 

Enough time to collect my documents and pack my things. 

Enough time to see what, if anything, was left of the life I’d had for the past eighteen years.

Laura didn’t call until nine the next morning. 

“Where were you last night? You didn’t come home, and you couldn’t even send one message to the group?” 

stared at the puddles outside and slowly slid my acceptance letter back into its folder. 

“But I didn’t know which home I was supposed to go to.” 

The other end of the line went silent. 

All four parents arrived at the study lounge an hour later. 

Daniel was the first through the door. 

The second he saw me sitting safely at my desk, his expression darkened. 

“Your phone was working. Why didn’t you tell us where you were? Do you have any idea how long everyone was looking for you?” 

“What time did you start looking?” 

His mouth opened. 

Nothing came out. 

The woman at the front desk answered for him. 

“She checked in at 11:42 last night. You called us at 9:20 this morning, didn’t you?” 

The anger froze on Daniel’s face. 

Rachel came toward me and reached for my damp hair. 

I turned my head away. 

Her hand stopped in midair before she awkwardly adjusted the jacket hanging over the back of my chair instead. 

“We just assumed the Hayeses would take care of you,” she 

said hoarsely. “They raised you for eighteen years.” 

Laura immediately looked up. 

Tessa is your biological daughter. After finding out the truth last night, she should’ve gone home with you.” 

All her things are at your house. Of course she’d go somewhere familiar first.” 

Their voices grew sharper. 

One mother grabbed my left hand. 

The other took my right wrist. 

They both kept saying they cared. 

Both desperately wanted to prove they weren’t heartless. 

Yet neither one actually wanted to take me home. 

I pulled my hands free. 

“Let me check out first.” 

Faced with something practical, they finally fell silent. 

The front desk refunded me a few dollars. 

As I put the change into my backpack, Sophie ran through the door. 

“Tessa, I’m sorry.” 

She stopped a few feet away. 

“They kept talking to me last night. I didn’t realize you 

weren’t there until I was getting ready for bed. I asked in the group, but I…” 

She glanced back at all four parents. 

The rest of the sentence died in her throat. 

This isn’t your fault,” I said. 

She didn’t look relieved. 

She only lowered her head and gripped the hem of her dress. 

To put the whole incident behind us, Daniel proposed a 

seven–day “family bonding week.” 

Michael immediately agreed. 

Both daughters, he said, needed a chance to get to know both families again. 

The two mothers pulled out their phones and showed me the 

attractions and restaurants they’d already planned, 

“This time,” Laura promised, “no one gets left out.” 

My phone vibrated in my palm. 

The university had approved my early move–in request. 

Seven days from now. 

I dismissed the notification. 

“I already have plans in seven days.” 

Laura smiled. 

“We’ll take care of everything you need for college. Right now, 

focus on sorting things out with your family. You don’t always 

have to handle everything yourself.” 

For one second, I hesitated. 

When I was little, Laura always checked my backpack the 

night before every school field trip. 

Bandages in the inner pocket. 

Water bottle in the side pouch. 

If rain was in the forecast, she’d remind me twice. 

None of that care had been fake. 

For a moment, I almost believed she’d simply been 

overwhelmed by the sudden return of her biological daughter. 

Then I opened the reservation page on the itinerary. 

Five express passes for the theme park. 

Five tickets for the historic district. 

Two hotel packages with breakfast for two, plus one single breakfast. 

The restaurant reservation was for five. 

The rental SUV seated five. 

The reservations had been made at 12:17 the previous night. 

At that exact time, I’d been sitting in the corner of a study 

lounge in wet clothes. 

“Who planned this?” I asked. 

Michael took the phone. 

Daniel and I did. We thought you wouldn’t enjoy all the 

excitement. We changed it later, didn’t we?” 

He quickly swiped back to the first page. 

The title now read: 

Six–Person Family Bonding Week. 

But the edit history was still there. 

The original title had been: 

Both Sets of Parents‘ Make–Up Week With Soph. 

We’ll add your reservations tomorrow,” Daniel said, taking 

the phone away. “Adding one person at the last minute isn’t 

difficult. There’s no reason to obsess over a few words.” 

“Then add me now.” 

His finger stopped. 

“The booking system is under maintenance. We’ll do it tomorrow morning.” 

I said nothing else. 

When I returned to the Hayes house to collect my 

documents, I printed the itinerary. 

Then I circled the date of the final day. 

Inside the circle, I wrote one word. 

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