No Longer Your Charity Case

The day my biological parents brought me home, I thought I finally had a family.

That very night, their adopted daughter, Chloe, woke up sobbing, claiming she’d had a nightmare about being abandoned. My parents rushed to her side, leaving me completely alone in a cold, dusty room just converted from a walk-in storage closet.

I sat there on the edge of the bed until dawn.

The next day, they had promised to take me to City Hall to officially change my last name and update my records.

Then Chloe called. With a trembling voice, she asked, Mom, Dad... are you going to throw me away now