By sunset, I was sitting on a flight to Seattle, my wet swimsuit shoved into my carry-on while my cousins called after me from the curb, telling me to text them when I landed. I didn’t tell my parents. I almost did six different times. My thumb hovered over my mother’s contact until the plane rose above the clouds and the signal disappeared.
When I landed, I expected to see Aunt Rebecca.
Instead, two men and one woman stood near baggage claim, holding a paper sign with my full name.
CLAIRE ELLISON.
The woman’s silver hair was twisted into a knot, and she held a leather briefcase beneath one arm. “Claire?” she asked softly.
“Yes.”
“My name is Margaret Shaw. I’m an attorney.” She nodded toward the men beside her. “This is Investigator Daniel Price and Investigator Luis Ortega. We need to speak somewhere private.”
My mouth went dry. “Is this about my parents?”
Margaret’s face shifted just enough to answer before her words did. “It is.”
Inside a small airport conference room, Daniel set a folder on the table. Inside were photographs. Bank statements. Copies of birth certificates. A newspaper clipping from twenty-one years earlier.
Margaret folded her hands together.
“Claire, the people who raised you, Martin and Elaine Ellison, are not your biological parents.”
I laughed once, because my mind could not process that sentence any other way.
Then Daniel pushed the newspaper clipping toward me.
LOCAL COUPLE KILLED IN HIGHWAY COLLISION. INFANT DAUGHTER MISSING FROM WRECKAGE.
A baby photo was printed beneath the headline.
My face. Smaller and rounder, but still mine.
Margaret’s voice remained steady. “Your birth name is Natalie Pierce. Your parents were David and Laura Pierce. They died in a crash outside Tacoma. You were reported missing from the scene.”
The room seemed to tilt sideways.
Luis said, “We believe Martin Ellison was one of the first officers to arrive.”
“My dad?” I whispered.
Daniel opened another photograph. My father, younger and in uniform, standing beside the wrecked vehicle.
Margaret said, “He never reported finding you.”
I tried to stand, but my knees gave out before I was even fully upright.
