Morgan Is The Bomb (The M' s Series #1)

So...Clara Had a Kid with Ren?

"My what?!" Clara whipers harshly. Her eyes fully focus on me. I gulp. "Oh God," she mutters, "I can see it."

She collapses back in her chair.

"Gail, what do you mean 'Clara's daughter'? Clara only has one daughter and Sierra's five." The guy with glasses asks.

I glance at my father who is gaping at me. Gail is loving the drama she's concocted.

"Everyone," Gail announces, "meet Morgana Cardea Sweeney, though she prefers Morgan." A chair scrapes the patio when someone pushes their chair back. It's my father. "Sit down, Ren. You're scaring her." Gail looks at me with concern.

"Gail," Ren says. "You can't just take her from her family for an informal meeting. We signed contracts. Her family--"

"She has no family, Ren. Morgan has been in foster care since she was three years old." Gail interrupts. "In the past eleven years she has been in ten foster homes and two group homes. Two of which she was removed from because due to neglect."

There is silence.

"What? But, Justine and Vincent...They had her." Ren looks at me. "They were supposed to take care of her. What happened to them?" He looks at Gail expectantly.

Nevermind me, I'm just here for show. "Hey." All eyes land on me. "Yeah, hi," I raise my hand in greeting, "Justine and Vincent...well, Justine was diagnosed with cancer when I was one. She passed away a little before my third birthday. Vincent, ah, he wasn't really up to raising me without her. So...yeah. I guess shit happens ." I shrug as if it's self explanatory.

"Why were we never informed?" Ren looks me in the eye. Blue against blue. He looks at me the same way you look at a puppy on the way to the kill shelter.

"Closed adoption and signing away all rights equals no parental rights which means that the state treats you like a stranger to me regardless of bloodties. " I rock back and forth on my heels.

"Are you sure it's her?" Clara's husband asks.

Gail replies, "There is no doubt."

"Wait," says glasses guy, "so Clara has a long-lost daughter...with Ren?!"

"Not lost, Theo. Forgotten." Clara says with unshed tears in her eyes. "She was an accident. A stupid mistake. One that I've apologized for over and over and over. But you can't forgive me, can you, Mom? You can't just let it go! I was just a stupid teenage girl that got knocked-up, okay?" She cries. "You insist on punishing me by bringing this...this thing home to taunt me!" She sobs.

"Clara!" scolds Gail.

I wasn't expecting hugs and kisses but that hurt. A lot more than I'd thought it would.

Clara's husband puts his arm around her to comfort her. "Gail, this isn't fair on Clara. This isn't fair on the kids, springing something like this wasn't your decision to make. It was Clara's secret to tell when she was ready."

Gail throws her hands in the air. "But Clara's never ready. None of you ever are. Nobody ever wants to talk about it. Nobody wonders or asks about it." She snorts. "We're all still saying 'it' as if it's not real when 'it' is standing right here!" She steps closer to me. "Nobody cared enough. But I wondered. I felt guilty. I've wanted to know what happened to that little baby girl, who Clara and Ren couldn't even look at when she was born, for a very long time."

Around me the argument starts. I shift my feet awkwardly. A lump forms in my throat unwillingly. They couldn't even look at me? Were they that disgusted by my existence? Were they that ashamed?

I study the details in my worn-down knock-off sneakers. The rip on the left one about a centimeter long is from my first escape attempt with Jo. The worn down rubber on the right tip of the shoe because Daphne constantly borrows them and she drags her right foot slightly.