Page 139 of The System

“Yeah, right now. Excuse me,” she said and got up from the table.

“Oh, I know what she’s doing.”

Kieran heard Carina say that as she dialed her mother’s number.

“Hey, honey. I thought you were at a wedding tonight.”

“We are. But I wanted to ask you something.”

“Everything okay?”

“Do you remember how you said if you would have known there were twins, you would’ve adopted both of us?”

“Yes.”

“Well, there’s this thing called adult adoption. I think it would be amazing if you considered it for Marin.”

“You want me to adopt a woman who’s almost thirty-seven years old?”

“She’s never had a mother, Mom,” Kieran replied as she continued her walk away from the table.

“Oh, I see,” her mom said and paused for a moment. “Well, I already consider her my other child and love her, so why not make it official?”

“Really?”

“Of course. If she wants it, I’d be happy to be her mother.”

“Do you want a son-in-law?”

“I had one of those. It didn’t work out. I thought I’d be getting a daughter-in-law soon, Kieran.”

“I meant Frank. They’re here talking to each other. It’s really kind of cute and funny. She’s finally admitted that she likes him.”

“Oh, Frank. Yes, she talks about him all the time. As if we didn’t know she likes him.” Her mom laughed. “Well, that’s good news. But what about Carina?”

“I’m going to ask her, Mom.”

“Yes, I know. But when, Kieran?”

“It’s only been a year and a half.”

“Of you telling me over and over again that she’s the love of your life and that you weren’t sure about marriage after Diego, but with her, you know you want that again.”

“Yes, I do,” she said. “I’m working on it, okay?”

“Well, work faster. And we’ll talk about Marin later, but this is a good idea for your sister, honey.”

Kieran smiled and said, “I hope so.”

They’d talked about calling their birth mother many times since they’d found her, but Marin was still so angry, and understandably so. Kieran herself wasn’t sure that she wanted to meet the woman yet. She had a mother who had chosen her over and over for her entire life and a father who had done the same. They were her family. Now, she also had Marin and Carina, and her life was full. Maybe someday, they’d decide to call her, but if not, at least they knew where they came from. The thing they loved the most about their origin story was finally finding out which one of them was the oldest. In their mother’s diary, she’d said that the first baby had had a light birthmark on her shoulder. Kieran’s birthmark had grown darker over the years, but it was still funny to her how she’d turned into the older sibling without even knowing that she was one. It turned out, she’d been born eight minutes before Marin, and she held that over her sister now all the time.

“You’re just eight minutes closer to death,” Marin would toss back.

“You asked her, didn’t you?” Carina asked, finding her on her way back to the table.

“I did. She said yes,” Kieran replied. “I’ll have to talk to Marin about it.”

“That was a good idea, babe,” Carina said, taking her hand. “Want to dance with your girlfriend now that I’ve digested all my cake and feel like I can move again?”

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