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July 4th
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Thirteen-year-old Sarah lay on her bed and stared up at the ceiling. She could hear the sounds of her little brother and sister playing in the living room downstairs, but she had tuned them out. Her thoughts were focused on the conversation she and her parents had just had.
Sarah knew Doug was not her real father. They had told her at the tender age of six, when she didn't really understand. But just weeks after her thirteenth birthday, they had decided she was old enough to know everything.
*FLASHBACK*
"You know Doug isn't your real father, like he is Max and Andie's. We told you that awhile ago. But we figured you were old enough to know the details now." Carol said. Doug was nervously holding her hand.
*END FLASHBACK*
They had told her all about Shep. How Raoul died and he became abusive. Then how he had left just weeks before she had been born. They told her how he came back when she was five-months-old and had kidnapped her. They told her how Uncle Mark had found her when he was visiting Rachel and had brought her home.
Sarah couldn't help but hate Shep. He had beat her mother. He had left her mother. He had kidnapped her and taken her away from Carol and Doug when she was only an infant. Sarah could only hope she didn't turn out like him.
She loved Doug. He was her Dad, no matter what anyone said. She may not be his blood, but she was his daughter. No one would ever change that, she thought fiercely. She turned her head and looked at a picture of her family that was framed and sitting atop her desk. Sarah rolled off the bed and sat in the desk chair. She picked up the picture and stared down at it, a smile on her face.
She didn't care if Max and Andie didn't come from the same man as she. They were her brother and sister. No one would ever change that, either, she thought and smiled softly.
Sarah stood from her seat on the desk and made her way downstairs. She turned the corner and walked into the living room where she saw Max playing nintendo and Andie playing with a Barbie. Doug was sitting on the couch beside Carol, talking quietly. The two of them looked up when they saw Sarah enter the room. She smiled and made her way to them.
She curled up onto Doug's lap and leaned her head against his shoulder. She felt him sigh beneath her.
"I love you, Daddy." Sarah said and wrapped her arms around his waist. She felt Doug's breath hitch under her and she turned her nose into his chest and took a deep breath, memorizing his scent.
"I love you, too, Curly." Doug said, hugging her tightly. When Sarah looked at her mother, Carol was sitting, watching them with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face. Sarah reached one hand to her and Carol smiled, taking Sarah's hand into her own and scooting closer.
From the floor, Andie looked up. She was a spitting image of her mother and her sister at the age of seven. Andie smiled and clammered off the floor and onto the couch. She scooted into Carol's arms.
"Hi Sissy." Andie said. Sarah smiled.
"Hi baby." She said. Andie grinned. Sarah looked over and saw her brother who was just turning his head and looking at them. He paused his game and stood up, hands on his hips.
"What about me?" The ten-year-old asked.
"C'mere." Doug said. Max grinned and pushed his way through the mess of them and cuddled close. Doug and Carol looked at each other and smiled before linking hands gently. Sarah watched the look pass between them and she knew she was right where she wanted to be. With her family.
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