Hold Her Heart (Words of the Heart) Read Online Free PDF Page B

smiled. “Me, too. I guess the one that has haunted me the most is are you happy? Did you have a good childhood? Are you happy now?”
    “My childhood—that one’s easy. Yes. My parents were the best.” I realized that might hurt her and started to look for something else to say. She must have sensed it, because she reached out and placed her hand on mine.
    “That was my biggest dream for you. If you had a happy childhood, then, at least for me, most of the rest is secondary. Are you happy now? I—”
    Piper was interrupted by someone hollering from the back door of the house. “Where are you?”
    “Back here, Fi,” she called.
    Moments later, someone crashed into view. The someone in question was a young girl with a long braid that she flipped over her shoulder as she reached us.
    A long red braid.
    “Mom.” She started and then noticed me.
    She screeched and threw herself at me. I had no choice but to open my arms and catch her. “You’re here, Amanda,” she said as she hugged me.
    “Her name’s Siobhan,” Piper said.
    The girl released me and grinned at me. “Yeah, I know you’re really Siobhan. I’ve seen the video about a thousand times. We watch it every year on your birthday. I can recite your whole speech by heart, you know.”
    She stood in front of me and recited:
     
    There are so many choices. And each one we make will have a lifelong impact. I know about that kind of life-changing decision. You see, today I need to thank both of my mothers for the choices they made. I thank the mother who raised me. She opened her heart and her home to a child she didn’t give birth to. That decision—made before I was born—set my life on a path. Never has any child been so loved.
    But I also need to thank the mother who gave birth to me. Most of you don’t know I’m adopted. Why would you? But before I was my parents’ daughter, there was another woman who carried me for nine months.
     
    “Fiona,” Piper said sharply, warning in her voice.
    It took me a moment, but I recognized the speech from my high school graduation. I’d been valedictorian. My parents had given me the letter from my birth mother and the locket. I reached up and touched it as if it were a talisman that might calm me.
    “Video?” I asked. I was struck by the enormity of this girl’s appearance. I had a sister. A sister who knew my entire valedictorian speech from high school.
    “Oh, sorry, Mom.” She turned back to me. “I’m Fiona. Mom and Dad loved your name so much—Siobhan,” she added, as if I might not be sure what name she was talking about. “So when I came along, they decided on an Irish name for me, too. Of course, they didn’t really think too much about the impact of a name like Fiona. Some of the bullies at school tried to taunt me by calling me Shrek, but then I said if I were an ogre, they must be the donkey, only I called them another word that means donkey and the teacher overheard. She called Mom and Dad in along with Dillan’s parents. We had to apologize to each other. He tried calling me Shrek again, but I just brayed at him like a donkey, and then I said I couldn’t understand donkey. He gave up.”
    “Fi—” Piper said.
    “That’s Mom’s way of saying I talk too much, and I do. But I’ve got a lot to say to you. I’m nine, and I’ve been waiting for you my whole life. You can’t imagine how hard it was to be patient. Mom says that patience isn’t one of my virtues.”
    “Neither is silence,” Piper said, dire warning in her voice.
    If my mother had spoken to me in that tone, I’d have been cowed. My little sister was either made of sterner stuff, or Piper was less than intimidating because Fiona simply grinned and said, “Yeah, silence isn’t one, either.”
    “Honey, Siobhan just got here, and we’d like some time to talk.”
    “Okay, I get it. But you have to promise me you won’t just leave without seeing me.” She reached out and hugged me again. “Promise.”
    I