Family Family

Fig is India’s intelligent, precocious daughter and Jack’s twin sister. More than anything, Fig desires to feel safe. Her past family experience left her with emotional scars, and each day, she struggles against anxiety and fear. When Fig sees Lewis’s superhero cape, she thinks, “[H]ow it would be comforting to have wings to curl around yourself if you were sad or scared or needed to hide from your mother” (273). Parenting Fig challenges India’s notion of what it means to be a mom. Fig represents that children can thrive in challenging situations, yet sometimes love isn’t enough to solve their problems.

India’s publicity disaster causes Fig to fear for their security, emboldening her to reach out to Bex for help and later in her search for Lewis. What begins as a desire to help her mother battle against the media firestorm becomes a complex exploration of her identity as an adopted child and what it means to be a part of a unique family. When Fig meets India’s biological daughter Bex online, they bond through their shared experience. However, meeting her in person and later meeting Lewis forces Fig to see herself and her family differently.

Bex becomes a significant presence in Fig’s life. Their shared experience connects them beyond mere coincidence. Fig’s interactions with Bex reveal layers of vulnerability and longing in both characters. At the beginning of the story, Fig compares the media debacle to the Big Bang because it is explosive. However, the event is also expansive, and through it, Fig learns more about herself and her capacity for bravery and resilience. She also has new siblings, which has enlarged her support system and given her a sense of security and stability.

Rebecca is Robbie and India’s daughter they put up for adoption and who goes by “Bex.” The fact that India kept her a secret becomes a point of tension in her life when India’s decision to put her up for adoption 16 years ago becomes public.

India’s past timeline reveals that although India never thought of Rebecca as hers, the child haunted her as she tried to envision what became of her after she put her up for adoption. Bex’s interiority reveals that she also grew up with questions about her adoption and her biological parents. Her sudden arrival in LA forces India to revisit her past decisions, helping Bex understand her and Robbie’s choice for adoption and integrating Bex into her current family. Bex’s character represents the range of emotional and psychological responses a child can have around their adoption. Bex’s feelings about her adoption swing from curiosity, longing, and confusion, which precipitates her journey to finding assurance in her identity.

Part of Bex’s journey is reconciling who she thought India was as a movie star with who she is in real life. Bex’s fantasy of India’s glamorous life is shattered once she arrives in LA: “Being the child of a celebrity turned out to suck” (303). However, a more profound struggle lies with Bex’s conception that somehow her adoption meant that India and Robbie traded one life for another. Meeting Robbie helps Bex find peace in her understanding of how choices work. In giving her to Camille, Robbie and India didn’t sever a connection but instead created a new path and branch of the family tree. Bex understands that India wasn’t keeping her a secret but was protecting her and Camille’s privacy, and that Robbie’s decision to have other children didn’t mean she was less important to him.

Robbie is India’s first romantic relationship, and their attraction is instant, all-consuming, and marked by a sense of purity and passion. Through his connection to India, Robbie transforms from the awkward new kid to falling head over heels in love.

Robbie and India’s relationship takes a turn when she gets pregnant, and suddenly, their relationship shifts from youthful love and lust to being forced to make weighty decisions about their lives and that of their unborn child. Robbie is supportive, but he wrestles with aligning his desires with India’s. She wonders later if “she had chosen right for Rebecca. But maybe she had chosen wrong for her and Robbie” (83). Despite India's relentless positivity, he goes along with the adoption, knowing the experience will forever change them. Robbie disappears from the story after he ends their relationship, and India moves on with her life. Though he sends India flowers once before a big performance, he mostly lives in her memory, and when she needs help emoting on stage, she turns to her connection to him.

Robbie reappears in the narrative through Davis’s desire to better understand India and her choices. Through time and experience, Robbie has undergone many life changes, including getting married, becoming a father, and getting divorced. Robbie isn’t the only character who needs answers from Robbie, as all of India’s children make a pilgrimage to Robbie’s home. With the final piece of their familial puzzle in place, Bex and the others can finally make peace with their identity and their place within the family. Robbie serves as a bridge from India’s past to her present, exemplifying the ways birth parents can come together to support their biological children in understanding their identity.