“No, I don’t think so. Why?”
“Can you look? Or ask around? Or, I don’t know,check online?”
“I can try, but… honey, what’s this about?”
“She said she adopted Aurora, right? From a foster agency?”
“Yeah. She mentioned one in Oregon, I think.”
“Can you do me a favor and call them? Just to… just to check?”
“Ella, that’s a big ask. You think Scarlett’s—” She pauses. “Honey, I know she’s always been a bit distant after everything that happened, but she’s a good person.”
“Please, Mom. I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t feel somethingmight beoff.”
A beat of silence. “I’ll call you back,” she says.
I wait.
And wait.
An hour later, my phone rings.
I answer before the first ring finishes.
“There’s no record,” my mom says, voice tight. “I spoke to two different people at the agency. They have no record of any child named Aurora. Nothing matches. They have no records of Scarlett either.”
The air is sucked from my lungs.
I sit down on the floor.
Itisher. It has to be.
I open my messages and type before I can second-guess it.
Ella:Hey. I need to talk to you.
Three dots appear. Then disappear. Then reappear.
Nathan:Please give me space.
Ella:It’s important. Please.
His reply comes instantly.
Nathan:Stop, Ella.
My hands shake. A knot forms in my chest.
That’s it. I’m done texting. I need him to look me in the eyes.
I storm out of my apartment and take the elevator up to the sixth floor. My heart pounds with each ding. I walk straight to his door and knock—not hard, but not gently either.
“Nathan?I need to talk to you.”
A few seconds pass before the door opens.
He looks… tired. Empty. Like whatever fire was in him has long since burned out.
