CHAPTER 2 — THE ORPHANAGE THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN EMPTY For a long moment, nobody spoke. Rain hammered against the cemetery, drowning out every other sound except the mother's uneven breathing. The little girl's tiny hand remained stretched toward the rusted iron gate beyond the graves. "At the orphanage," she repeated quietly, as if she were describing somewhere ordinary. The father slowly released her wrist. His fingers were shaking. His eyes stayed fixed on the faded blue friendship bracelet tied around the girl's arm. He knew that bracelet. He had buried another one exactly like it. His twin sons, Noah and Liam, had begged for matching bracelets every summer. They refused to take them off, even while sleeping. When the boys supposedly died in the boating accident two years earlier, only one bracelet had ever been recovered. The police said the river had carried everything else away. Back then, grief had been stronger than doubt. Now doubt swallowed grief whole. The mother stared at the bracelet before whispering, "Where did you get this?" The little girl looked confused. "They gave it to me." "Who?" "My brothers." The mother's knees buckled. "They visit after bedtime." The cemetery became impossibly silent. The father felt something cold settle deep inside his chest. This child had never met his sons. She couldn't possibly know about the bracelets. Unless... Without another word, he pulled out his phone. "I want every record from Saint Gabriel's Orphanage." His private investigator answered immediately. "Tonight." Three hours later... The orphanage stood alone outside town, surrounded by dying pine trees. Its paint peeled from the walls. Most of the windows were dark. Only one office remained lit. An elderly nun opened the front door before they even knocked. She looked at the father. Then at the bracelet. Her face drained of color. "I knew this day would come." The father stepped forward. "My sons died two years ago." The nun slowly shook her head. "No." "They disappeared."

2 chapters