"Once I was 7 Years Old..."

 Call me Emm. I've known I was adopted since I was 7 years old. No, my adoptive parents weren't forthcoming. I was just looking around through old pictures. I like pictures. I liked looking at myself as a baby. But this one baby picture was different. It didn't say the name that I was called, it said a different name. Patricia. Huh? Who the heck was that. When I asked my parents about the picture, then they broke the news to me. Adopted. My head started spinning. What would happen next? Would my adoptive parents give me away too? They tried to assure me of their love. They said that they'd help me look for my birth mother when I got older. But then they swore me to secrecy. That same secrecy that they'd kept up for 7 years. All of a sudden I felt ashamed to be me. I felt like I had to comfort them and assure them of my loyalty. I was 7.