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I’m pretty sure that by now you’ve already figured out what I’m trying to say.
Marcello, Alessio and Virgil — those are your real names, aren’t they?”
My eyes widened as the words on the letter started to blur in a haze of confusion.
“I didn’t know who you were when we first met. It was the night before I left when King told me about a little girl he used to know that it clicked, and the number of coincidences was too high to just be dismissed. The orphanage’s name was Corigliano-Rossano. It had been demolished since then. Your names are Marcello, Alessio, and Virgil. On my eighth birthday, you woke me up in the middle of the night and dragged me to the rooftop, where you surprised me with a cupcake and we spent the whole night gazing at the stars. If any of this is true, then that means I’ve found you again.
My sweet boys, I promise you that we will see each other again.
Love, Dahlia.”
I didn’t know how much time I spent just staring at the letter in my hand. It must have been a while because I suddenly felt a hand lightly shaking my shoulder. Blinking back to the present, I found Ace and Jack standing before me, their expressions a mirror of concern.
“You ok? We tried calling you, but you didn’t hear us.”
I opened my mouth, but I found myself unable to form coherent words. Instead of saying anything, I just silently extended the letter to them.
I could see their expression change with each passing paragraph, from confused to shocked to absolutely gutted.
“I… I don’t understand,” Ace whispered, his hand trembling.
Jack continued to stare at the letter without saying anything, as though if he looked at it hard enough, something else might magically appear.
Time seemed to stretch on forever like that until Jack finally broke the silence.
“What… what happens now?”
I would have liked to know that too, but I didn’t know the answer.
My gaze returned to the letter in his hand.
“I guess that we wait.”
Twenty
An oath
Corigliano-Rossano orphanage, 13 years ago
Awhite sheep jumped over the fence… another white sheep jumped over the fence… and another white sheep jumped over the—
A hand suddenly covered my mouth, snapping me out of my semiconscious state. I flailed my limbs around, trying to hit whoever it was that was pressing their hand down, but then I heard an amused whisper next to my ear.
“Shhh, you’re going to wake everybody up.”
The voice that spoke was more than familiar.
I stopped my flailing and I glared up into the darkness.
The hand finally moved away.
“Why did you scare me like that? You’re so mean,” I whispered to Alessio, making sure to keep my voice down as to not wake the rest of the girls up.
Alessio yanked the blanket off me and I shivered as cold air hit my skin. “Stop pouting and get up.”
I sat up, grumbling under my breath as I felt around in the darkness for my slippers. When I finally found them, Alessio grabbed me by the hand and started tugging me toward the hallway.
“Where are we going?”I whisper-yelled, but Alessio just shushed me again.
