Chapter Four — The Name She Never Knew
656 Words
Dira stared at her parents, waiting for someone to speak.
Her heart pounded harder with every second of silence.
“What else?” she asked again.
Jacob rubbed his hands over his face tiredly.
Emily sat back down slowly, unable to meet Dira’s eyes.
Finally, Jacob spoke.
“Your biological mother tried to come back for you.”
Dira froze.
“What?”
“She came to the hospital two weeks after you were placed into foster care,” Emily explained quietly. “But by then, the adoption process had already started.”
“Who is she?”
“We don’t know much,” Jacob admitted. “The hospital never gave us her full information.”
Dira laughed bitterly through her tears.
“You’re telling me my real mother came back for me… and nobody told me?”
“She disappeared again afterward,” Emily said quickly. “We never heard from her after that.”
Dira looked down at the papers in her hands.
At the bottom corner of one document was a handwritten note.
Baby Girl Monroe
Monroe.
That was her real last name.
Not Carter.
For the first time in her life, Dira felt completely disconnected from everything around her.
Her home.
Her family.
Even her own name.
Without another word, she walked past her parents and ran upstairs.
“Dira!” Emily called after her.
But she locked herself inside her bedroom.
⸻
The next morning, Dira refused to come downstairs.
Radi knocked softly on the door.
“Can I come in?”
No answer.
Radi slowly opened the door anyway.
Dira sat beside the window wrapped in a blanket, staring outside at the rain.
Radi immediately noticed the swollen eyes.
“What happened?”
Dira hesitated.
Then quietly, she handed Radi the adoption papers.
Radi’s face changed instantly as she read them.
“No way…”
Dira looked away.
“I’m not actually your sister.”
Radi quickly sat beside her.
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s true.”
Radi shook her head immediately.
“You grew up with us. You ARE my sister.”
“But not by blood.”
Radi sighed softly.
“Blood isn’t everything.”
Dira laughed weakly.
“It kind of feels like it right now.”
A knock suddenly interrupted them.
Mandy walked in without waiting for permission.
“I knew something was wrong,” she said.
Radi handed her the papers silently.
Mandy read them quickly.
Unlike Radi, she didn’t look shocked.
Dira noticed immediately.
“You knew.”
The room became silent.
Mandy exhaled slowly.
“I found out two years ago.”
Dira stared at her in disbelief.
“You WHAT?”
“I overheard Mom crying one night,” Mandy admitted quietly. “They told me after that.”
“And you never told me?”
“It wasn’t my secret to tell!”
Dira stood up angrily.
“So everybody knew except me?”
“No,” Mandy snapped back. “Radi didn’t know either.”
“But YOU did.”
Mandy looked guilty for the first time.
“I wanted to tell you so many times.”
“But you didn’t.”
Dira grabbed her jacket quickly.
“Dira, wait—”
“I need air.”
She rushed downstairs before either sister could stop her.
Outside, cold rain hit her face instantly as she walked down the empty street.
Everything felt unreal.
For sixteen years, she had wondered why she looked different.
Now she knew.
Because she wasn’t really a Carter.
A car horn suddenly interrupted her thoughts.
Dira looked up.
A black SUV sat parked across the street.
The driver’s window rolled down slowly.
A woman wearing dark sunglasses stared directly at her.
Then the woman spoke.
“Dira Monroe?”
Dira’s heart nearly stopped.
“Yes…”
The woman removed her sunglasses slowly.
“I’ve been looking for you for a very long time.”
- Writer
