"You might not remember me well, but I used to live here. We shared a room together. I went by Serena back then." Viola said, stepping forward and bringing Sebastian along with her by the hand she still held. He followed her without resistance.

Julia’s expression shifted into confusion as her eyes moved between Viola and Sebastian. "I don’t remember any Serena. I shared a room with a girl once but I can’t remember what became of her. What are you here for? Adoption?"

Viola’s smile faltered slightly. Julia didn’t remember her. But then she had always chosen not to pay Serena much attention, never truly liking her even back then, so Viola let it go and replied,

"No. We are not here to adopt. Does Mrs. Agustin still work here?" She asked, referring to the orphanage caretaker who had made Viola’s life a specific kind of misery, convinced she was cursed and deserving of treatment that matched it.

The brown eyed girl looked taken aback at the name but shook her head. "Mrs. Agustin passed away four years ago. Miss Lara is in charge of the orphanage now."

Miss Lara. The kind assistant to the cruel Mrs. Agustin. Viola thought, and found she felt nothing at all about the woman’s passing. Not a single drop of sorrow for someone who had been the mastermind behind dropping bodies of children into empty wells. She hoped the woman’s dead body ended up there as well.

"Can we see Miss Lara then?" Viola asked, glancing up briefly to meet Sebastian’s eyes. He gave her a small encouraging nod and squeezed her hand once as if to tell her she was doing well.

"You can. Come in." Julia stepped aside to let them through. "You wouldn’t normally be allowed access without going through our guards, but they are currently away on a hunting season outside of Nightshade." She remarked as she held the door open for them.

Viola was also aware of how the men in Nightshade were like creepy shadows and was surprised she didn’t see any of them outside, but Julia’s words explained why.

When they stepped in, Viola looked around the familiar front desk that hadn’t gone through any real changes since the last time she had walked out of this door wearing her sister’s dress. Her heart felt like it was squeezing itself from the inside with the remorse that came over her.

Julia gestured for them to sit on a long bench while she went to get Miss Lara. Viola couldn’t bring herself to sit down. She looked around the place and noticed two older girls and some children peeking down from the upper floor.

In the back of her mind she was searching every face she could see, looking for one that looked like hers, even though she could already tell from Julia’s reaction that the girl hadn’t looked at her with any recognition, the way she would have if she had seen a face like Viola’s walking around these halls recently. Was Ivy still here?

The anxiety began to creep back in, but Sebastian’s grip on her hand pulled her back, his thumb moving slowly over her knuckles. Viola had thought bringing him was a really bad idea, but he had made her relax more than once now, to the point that she no longer regretted allowing him to come. She didn’t think Nick would have been capable of calming her down the way this man was doing. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

And she was grateful. She looked up at him, but he wasn’t looking at her.

Sebastian was looking around the orphanage with a quiet expression on his face. He was trying to picture his little hellcat growing up inside these walls, trying to find her in the faces of the small children peering down from the stairs. The place didn’t look fit for living and seemed like it could crumble down at any moment. Did she live here during winters and stormy rains?

No wonder she had so much up her sleeve, she had started from such a rough place from the very beginning.

It was then that Julia returned with an older woman who looked to be in her middle age.

"Miss Lara, these are the guests looking for you." Julia said, stepping aside and gesturing toward them.

Miss Lara nodded and turned to the girl. "Go and see to Emma, she is still sick. Take the rest of the children to their rooms for a nap. I will see to the guests."

Julia nodded, but not before letting her eyes drift almost dreamily to the tall handsome man standing beside the woman. She lingered on him just a moment too long, and as if feeling her dreamy gaze, the woman beside him shifted to step in front of him in a way that was quiet but unmistakably possessive. Julia caught herself and looked away, moving to do as she was told.

"Come along, children."

"Julia, are they here to adopt? Who will they take?"

"They look so rich. I wish they would take me!"

The children’s voices faded up the staircase before Miss Lara turned her attention to them. "Julia told me you didn’t come here to adopt. What brought you here then?"

"I can tell you don’t recognize me, Miss Lara, but I was once a child from this orphanage. I stayed here with my twin sister. We were Ivy and Serena then, and you used to look after Ivy so well. Do you remember?" Viola asked carefully, not giving away that she was Serena just yet, in case Ivy had taken her identity and played it through to the end.

Miss Lara looked puzzled. "Did you say Ivy?" She asked, and when Viola nodded the woman said with a small laugh, "But Ivy didn’t have a twin sister."

Viola felt her heart throb before she steadied herself and said, "You must have forgotten, but years ago there was a couple, the Lindens, who came here to adopt a girl. They took Ivy."

Miss Lara’s face softened with recognition. "How could I forget that. It was the first time people of that standing ever took a child from this place. Ivy was such a sweet little girl." She said, and Viola felt a wave of relief so strong her legs nearly went weak beneath her. But the relief was short lived as the woman continued,

"Unfortunately Ivy never had a twin sister, just like I told you. She was alone here and the Lindens adopted her. Could it be that you are Ivy? I can still see a resemblance in your face and the eyes."

Viola felt her heart drop straight to her stomach as she stared at Miss Lara. "What do you mean she didn’t have a twin sister? Ivy and Serena lived here for seven years. The Lindens took one girl and left the other behind." Viola said, and then she turned to Sebastian with barely contained panic in her eyes. "She is mixing things up, Seb. Tell her to check the files and look properly. We were two!"

Sebastian put a steady arm around his luna and looked at the confused woman standing before them. "My wife knows what she is talking about. Check your files. You must have records of every child who has ever lived in this orphanage." He said in a tone that left no room for argument, and the woman nodded without hesitation.

"We do. Every child in this orphanage has a document that contains information from the first day they are brought here to the day they were adopted."

"Then bring everything out and go through them in front of us." Sebastian ordered.