MY PARENTS WALKED AWAY FROM ME AT THE HOSPITAL WHEN I WAS 13 — MY MOTHER WENT PALE WHEN THE DEAN CALLED MY NAME

and Robert Mitchell, looking stiff and out of place. My biological parents. I hadn’t laid eyes on them in 15 years. My mother appeared older, grayer, and more tired. My father had put on weight and lost much of his hair. They looked like ordinary people, nothing like the intimidating figures I remembered from childhood.

They didn’t glance at me as I continue reading …