Thirty-Two
Jade maneuvered through the shopping mall until she found an Apple Store on the lower level. She told an eager store employee she was just looking around and then quickly settled herself on a stool over by one of the display laptops. After opening a web browser, she went to Google and typed in the names Greg and Amy Olsen. Her fingers were shaking so much it was hard to even hit the right letters on the keyboard. She scooted in close to the laptop to block anyone from peeking into her business. She held her breath as she watched the screen load with results. She again gasped out loud, drawing the attention of several other shoppers around her, but quickly played it off with a forced smile. Her eyes were locked on the screen. Every search hit was a news article about what had happened thirteen years earlier. All saying basically the same thing she’d just seen and heard on TV. Her parents had murdered a pregnant young woman and stolen her baby. She clicked through on one article and read more of the details. It said Greg and Amy Olsen had fostered to adopt nine-month-old Marcy McGee. There was a photo of her young parents holding the near toddler. Jade zoomed in as close as possible. She put her hand to her mouth. It was definitely her. She’d seen baby photos of herself in one of her mom’s photo albums. She couldn’t believe it.
She was Marcy McGee. Not Jade Shipley.
She kept reading. The Olsens had expected to be granted full custody of Marcy, but according to family accounts, they were devastated when the judge had switched course last minute and given the child back to her biological mother. The court had made arrangements for the Olsens to turn the child over to Candace McGee the next morning. However, police believed the Olsens somehow lured the young mother to their home that night and killed her with a kitchen knife. Police found the weapon at the scene of the crime. The Olsens then fled from the home with the child and were never seen again. She continued to search articles, reading the same thing over and over again, finding out that the FBI had immediately gotten involved and had been searching for them ever since.
Her eyes grew wet, and her hands were trembling. Her whole life was a lie? If they hadn’t been caught, were they ever going to tell her the truth? Or would she have lived her entire life never knowing she’d been born a different person? How could her parents be so cruel? Did she even call them her “parents” anymore?
Tears now dripped on her cheeks. She couldn’t stop them.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice directly behind her.
“None of it is true, Jade.”
She spun around, saw her mom standing there. Jade didn’t know what to say or do. For the first time in her life, she didn’t want to reach for her mother when gripped with fear. It was an awful feeling. She just sat there, frozen.
Her mom stepped close to her, continued in a whisper: “I mean, it’s true that we’re not your biological parents. But we didn’t kill your mother. We would’ve never done something like that. Something else happened that night, and it forced us to run away with you.”
“What ... happened?” Jade asked, her voice cracking. She felt a surge of anxiety hit her chest that made it nearly impossible to speak. This was her mom, but it wasn’t her mom. That was impossible for her brain to handle right now. She desperately wanted to hear something that made sense. That made all this go away.
“Can we talk somewhere in private?”
Jade nodded. Her mom quickly led her out of the store and over to a Starbucks directly across the mall corridor. She asked her to have a seat at a small table away from everyone else. Jade’s whole body continued to tremble. She felt so cold, and so alone. It was a feeling she’d never experienced in her whole life. Her parents had always been there. She’d always felt safe with them. But that had just been completely shattered.
Her mom spoke quietly. “I’ve thought about this moment for a long time. I’ve wanted to tell you the truth for years. I just never thought it would be under these circumstances.”
“What is the truth?” she managed to ask.
Her mom swallowed. “You were our everything from the moment we began fostering you as a baby. We fell in love with you immediately. Your biological mother was in bad shape. Drugs, crime, jail, and other stuff. So we moved to adopt you. We thought you were going to be with us forever, and then the judge shockingly made a different decision. Yes, we were crushed. Beyond words. But we were never dangerous. Your mother came to our home in the middle of the night. She was bloody, panicked, and hard to understand. She begged us to take you and leave the house. She said you were in danger, and that someone was coming for you. And then she died right there in our entryway. We found out later she’d been stabbed. We were terrified. But to be safe, we left the house with you while trying to figure out what to do. We don’t know exactly what happened next, but by the following morning, the police had made us the primary suspects in your mother’s murder.”
Jade’s head spun. Was this really the truth? Could she trust what her mother was telling her? She’d never anticipated such a wild story. “If that’s true, why didn’t you just tell the police what really happened?”
“We wanted to but were afraid of what would happen to you. We knew child protective services would take you away from us. The chances of us ever being your real parents would likely vanish. We were terrified whoever did that to your mother would come back for you. And we wouldn’t be there to protect you. The thought of putting you in potential danger was too much for us to bear. So we made the devastating decision to run.”
“Then who really killed my mother?”
“We don’t know. The police never focused their investigation on anyone but us. And although we tried, there was nothing we could do to change that narrative without potentially exposing ourselves. We never wanted to risk losing you. We felt we had no choice but to hide all these years.”
Jade took a deep breath, trying to process all this new information. She was angry about being lied to her entire life. She felt a sudden lack of identity. Who was she anymore? But if what her mother was telling her was true, her parents had also sacrificed everything for her. Family, careers, home. There was no telling what else. They’d given up their whole lives to make sure she was safe and okay. She sighed, shook her head. She desperately wanted this to be true. Her mother had always been her best friend. She couldn’t handle the thought of losing her. But she really didn’t know what to feel right now.
“So how did the FBI find us?” she asked.
Her mom resisted answering her question.
“Tell me,” Jade insisted.
“Your father had set up an offshore account under a different name and put a lot of money in it when we left Austin all those years ago. We never touched it. Until yesterday.”
Jade’s mouth dropped. “My surgery?”
Her mom nodded. “We think they must’ve been tracking it this whole time.”
Jade cursed. Something she’d never done in front of her mom before. But she didn’t care right now. “So this is all happening because of me and my stupid back?”
“No, Jade, it’s happening because of all of us. We’re a family.”
Jade gritted her teeth. If it weren’t for her back, none of this would’ve happened. Everything would still be normal. This wasn’t fair. She wished she could go back and hide how much pain she was dealing with every day. Then maybe her dad wouldn’t have touched the money. Jade suddenly thought about her dad, felt a catch in her throat. “But Mom, the news is saying Dad shot and killed a police officer last night.”
“It’s not true. Dad would never do something like that.”
“Then why’re they saying it?”
“We honestly don’t know what’s going on. Another man is involved. I’ll tell you more, but we should get back to the van. Your dad is probably waiting on us and freaking out.”
They stood, but Jade didn’t move. She began to tear up again. Her emotions were running all over the place. She could barely control them. And while she was angry at her parents, the one thing she wanted more than anything right now was to be held by her mother. She desperately wanted to feel safe. And her mom had always been her safety net.
“What is it?” her mom asked.
“It’s just ... I love you, Mom.”
Her mom embraced her.
“I love you, too. More than anything.”