We stared at the screen, impatiently sipping our drinks in tense silence as the upload took its time completing. When it finished, the site said that it could take a few days for full matches to populate, so, closing my laptop, I leaned back into the couch and smiled.

‘Thanks for the idea, Trav.’

‘No problem,’ he said, placing his bottle back down on the table. ‘Okay, so what’s the plan tonight, ladies?’

‘I saw that Brooklyn Bridge Park is doing one of those outdoor movies tonight. Wanna grab snacks and go?’ Andie said eagerly. She loved any excuse to sit outside with a bottle of rosé stashed in her purse.

‘Ooh good idea, let’s look up which movie’s playing,’ I said, popping the laptop screen back open.

‘Sounds good to me,’ Travis said. ‘Oh, and you know what, Liz? I just had another thought. You should ask your parents which adoption agency they used. They can be pretty hard to get info out of for legal reasons, but now that you’re an adult you may be able to reach out to them for information about your records.’

‘I can’t believe I didn’t think of that,’ I said, annoyed with myself about how obvious the idea was.

‘Don’t be too hard on yourself, Lizzie,’ Andie said. ‘He’s got that whole, practical-lawyer-brain thing going on.’ She laughed at the look on his face, unsure if it was an insult or a compliment. Andie liked to teeter on the edge of that distinction frequently.

‘True,’ I said with a distracted smile, crafting a text to my parents asking for the information, while Andie snatched the laptop from me to look for the movie details.

I’d been dodging my parents’ calls since I got my results, sending them short text messages in response, not quite ready to face talking to them about all this yet. I felt a little sad, maybe even guilty, wondering how they were doing. I was sure this whole situation was hard for them too, and I was torn about whether I should work through my feelings with them or on my own. But I was still hurt by their deceit and I wasn’t quite ready to let them back in. I needed this information though, so I hoped they felt bad enough that they would just give it to me without a fuss.

‘Looks like the movie playing is a nice throwback, Juno.’ Andie arched one eyebrow, ‘Into it? Or is the whole adoption thing hitting a little too close to home?’

‘Shut up, Andie,’ I laughed, giving her a playful shove.

VICTIMS 2 & 3

Catherine Martin & Ruby Williams

1991

CHAPTER 4