Zoe lets out a shuddering breath. “Yes. I’m coming. I’m hoping you’ll change your mind. I don’t think this is the way to do it. It feels kind of wrong to me.”
I slam shut my door and wait as she climbs from the passenger seat.
I stare at her across the roof. “I won’t get the truth any other way.”
Her pale brows crinkle more. “Just promise me you won’t do anything crazy after you get it or I won’t help you.”
I roll my eyes. “Way to have my back, Zoe.”
She crosses her arms.
I widen my eyes. “I promise.”
I open the door into the house and the sound hits me like a brick. Twins running wild. Someone has turned on the audio system all through the rooms. Katy Perry. Gag me.
I go into the kitchen and find Aarsi and Krystal sitting together like besties on the family room floor, with Khloe in a bouncer between them.
“Where’s Mom?”
Aarsi clicks off the music. “Out with Lourdes.”
I go down the hall into my bedroom and close the door behind Zoe. I sink down on the bed, pull the box out of the bag, and start reading the instructions.
Kinship DNA test.
Designed to test siblings.
I can’t believe Zoe thought of this.
Why is she panicking now?
Why are there five sticks included? Are there really families that fucked up in the world? Directions look simple enough. Swab inside of cheek. Return tester to foil pouch. Seal. Mail. Six to eight weeks for results.
Easy beans.
What’s this form?
I pull it out and start reading. Oh shit. Why can’t they just give me the results by e-mail?
I turn to Zoe. She’s leaning back against my headboard, phone in hand and rapidly texting.
My eyes narrow. “What are you doing? You better not be telling Bobby about any of this.”
Her face snaps up and her cheeks redden. “No. I’m not. I promised I wouldn’t. But I probably should tell him everything. And by the way, I do have a life other than you, Kaley. I’m texting Jake, if you must know.”
She scrunches up her face at me and looks down at her phone again.
I hold out the form. “You need to fill this out. I don’t know your address. I have to have the results mailed somewhere. And I can’t have them sent here.”
She grabs the form and studies it, shaking her head. “I don’t want my name on that thing.”
“Well, we can’t put mine on it. Jeez, it’s for mailing purposes. It’s no big deal.”
I take a pen from my bag and hand it to her. With an aggravated sigh, she snatches it from my hand, plops onto her stomach on the bed, and starts writing.
I open one swab, swipe my mouth and put it back into the foil. There, done. Now I just have to figure out how to swipe Khloe’s cheek without Aarsi or Krystal seeing me.
My legs start jiggling as I wait for Zoe to finish filling out the form. “Do you think this is really going to work? What if it’s just a racket and doesn’t work?”
She frowns, double-checking the form as she chews on the end of the pen. “Of course it’s going to work. They wouldn’t sell these tests if they didn’t work. Besides, I saw this on an episode of Law & Order. This girl wanted to prove some rich guy was her father, but he wouldn’t take the test, so she tracked down her half brother and did a kinship test. Great episode. Riveting.”
Really, Zoe?
Your big idea came from TV?
Oh well, it’s probably better than anything we could think up. They do research those cop dramas pretty well.
“Are you done yet with that form?”
“Uh-huh. I think so,” she says with a nod. “We need to write down which tester belongs to which one of you.”
“No we don’t. We’re only sending two.”
Her eyes light up. “Yep. That’s right. We can skip that step.”
I sigh and rise from the bed. “Here’s the step we can’t skip. We’ve got to figure out a way to get Khloe away from Aarsi.”
I leave the box, the form, and the extra testers on the bed, and slip a fresh one for Khloe into my pocket. She’s got to nap sometime.
Back in the family room, I sink down on the sofa close to Krystal and Zoe does it again—hangs back in the kitchen, hovering and anxious.
Krystal turns her face to look at me. “What?”
I shrug, innocent. “What are you talking about?”
“Why are you sitting behind me, staring at me?”
I make a face. “I’m your sister. Where should I be?”
Krystal rolls her eyes, slaps shut her laptop, and leaves the room. Aarsi continues reading her textbook, glancing at me in between highlighting.
“Where do you go to school?”
She lifts her face. “UCLA. I’m in graduate school.”
“I thought you were younger than that. What are you studying?”
“Environmental economics.”
“Why? Do you plan to cure the world’s inequalities through wealth redistribution like every other college airhead out there too ashamed to admit they’re in college so they can make money? Or do you really believe all that shit about micro-managing fairness?”
She slams shut her book.
Ah.
I’ve pissed her off.
“I need to make the boys their lunch. Can you sit with Khloe for a while? She refuses to sleep today.”
Winning.
I smile. “Sure.”
I wait until she’s down the hallway.
I rip open the foil and pull out the stick. “Zoe, keep watch. Make sure she doesn’t see me.”
A loud frustrated sigh comes from the kitchen, but she moves from the counter to the doorway as a lookout.
I stare down into my sister’s face and I feel it, an out of nowhere jab that this is wrong—damn it, Zoe, thanks a lot—but I gently ease the tip into Khloe’s mouth anyway. She just stares up at me with Mom’s giant blue eyes. I quickly take the tester away and shove it into the foil.
Not even a tear from Khloe. For some reason that makes me feel lousier about doing this. Her trust is an absolutely shaming thing.
I kiss her on the forehead. “I’m sorry, baby girl.”
I cross to the kitchen. “Play with Khloe while I get everything ready to mail.”
Zoe shakes her head at me, but goes into the family room and sinks down on the carpet close to my sister.
My pulse is beating double time as I make my way down the hall. I’ve got everything I need for undeniable, irrevocable truth, but it doesn’t feel the way I thought it would.
I’m nervous. Agitated. Afraid and sad.
Maybe Bobby is right. Maybe it’s not always a good thing to know everything. Doing that to Khloe definitely felt wrong.
I’m angry that they’ve lied to me.
Does that make this right?
I’m not at all certain anymore, and halfway to convincing myself to toss everything in the trash and not do it.
I step into my room.
“Kaley! What is wrong with you?”
My heart stops.
Krystal.
Sitting on my bed with the box.
And what the fuck has she done with my testers?
“How dare you come into my room and snoop?” I snap, rummaging through the wrappers and used test sticks on the bed.
Oh God.
They’re all ripped open.
I don’t know which one is mine.
Krystal springs to her feet. “Tell me what’s going on or I’m calling Mom.”
I whirl on her. “You call Mom, if you so much as breathe one word of this to anyone, and so help me, I’ll never speak to you again.”
Her eyes cloud over, stricken. “Sneaking around the house and now this. What is it you’re trying to prove?”
I let out a ragged breath. “Duh, Krystal, you can’t be that dumb. I want to know if Khloe and I are half sisters or whole sisters. I have a right to know and you don’t have a right to stop me.”
I do another frantic study of the testing kit. Shit, why did she mess up the sticks? I can’t tell which one I used and which ones she destroyed.
She tries to stop my hands. “Then ask Mom. Don’t do this. Something terrible will happen if you do.”