"Tell her what happened to Esther."
Sister Catherine's words echoed in my head.
I turned to Aria.
"I'm waiting."
She looked at Sister Catherine, then at me. Her lips trembled, but she said nothing.
"Aria, please," I whispered. "I'm tired of being the only person who knows nothing about my own life."
"I didn't want you to find out this way."
"Then tell me another way!"
Sister Catherine closed the door behind her.
"Perhaps we should all sit down."
"No!" I snapped.
Both women stared at me.
I had never spoken to Sister Catherine like that before, but I couldn't bring myself to care.
"I've spent my entire life listening to people tell me what I should and shouldn't know. I'm done. If Esther disappeared three years ago, and you both know something about it, I want the truth."
Sister Catherine's expression softened.
"Esther was a good girl. Curious, stubborn, and far too brave for her own safety."
"Like me?" I asked.
She didn't answer.
Aria finally spoke.
"Esther was my sister."
I already knew that part, but hearing it again made everything feel more real.
"She disappeared after discovering something in the old chapel," Aria continued. "Something she believed could explain why certain records about the children in this orphanage had been changed."
"What records?"
"Birth records. Baptism records. Names that had been crossed out and replaced."
My stomach tightened.
I thought about the photograph with my name on the back. The scratched-out writing. The woman who looked like Sister Perry.
"What did Esther find about me?"
Aria wiped her cheeks.
"She found a record with two girls listed under the same date. One was named Taya Zarah."
"And the other?"
Aria looked directly into my eyes.
"The second name had been torn away."
I struggled to breathe normally.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because Esther told me not to trust anyone with that information until I found the original record."
"Not even me?"
"You were the person she was trying to protect."
I stared at her.
"Protect me from what?"
Before Aria could answer, Sister Catherine moved towards the door.
"This conversation is over."
I stepped in front of her.
"No, it isn't."
For the first time, she looked genuinely angry.
"Taya, you have no idea what you're disturbing."
"Then help me understand!"
She held my gaze for a long moment.
Then she reached into her pocket and removed a small, folded piece of paper.
"I kept this because I knew the day might come when you would ask questions I could no longer avoid."
She placed it in my palm.
It was old, yellowed, and marked with a faded church seal.
At the top were two words:
BAPTISM RECORD.
Below them was a date I recognised from the photograph.
And beneath that date were two entries.
The first read:
TAYA ZARAH.
The second name had been scratched out so violently that the paper was almost torn.
But someone had written a message across the bottom in red ink.
ONE CHILD WAS GIVEN A HOME. THE OTHER WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO SURVIVE.
I looked up at Sister Catherine.
"What does this mean?"
She didn't answer.
Instead, she turned towards the door.
"Ask Father Michael," she whispered. "He was there when the second child disappeared."
Then she left.
I stood frozen, the paper clutched in my hand.
The second child.
The missing name.
The girl who looked like me in the photograph.
I turned slowly towards Aria.
"Tell me the truth. Was that girl my sister?"
Aria began to cry.
"I don't know if she's your sister, Taya."
She took a shaky breath.
"But three years ago, Esther showed me a photograph of that same girl."
My heart pounded.
"And?"
Aria looked at me with terrified eyes.
"She was standing outside the orphanage. And she was alive."