A mistake. Because I crashed right into Julian, who immediately grabbed my arms to keep me from falling down another time.

The warmth of his hands on my elbows didn’t make it easy to look away. Instead, my gaze fell on his olive-green eyes.

“Are you okay?” he asked with a strangely concerned undertone, and only now did I realize how close he was to me.

“A raven... attacked me,” I gasped and stepped back, looking around in confusion for the creature and spotting three more pitch black birds in the road.

“Did you get hurt?”

I looked back at Julian, following his gaze to my T-shirt, which was tattered at my stomach.

Without hesitation, I pulled it up at the spot and discovered three bright red scratches next to my belly button.

Julian stepped closer, and immediately, I pulled the t-shirt back down.

“It’s okay...”, I said hastily and sped around, hurrying back to the porch.

The last thing I needed was Julian feeling sorry for me just because some stupid bird had run me over.

“Bayla?” I wheeled around and looked at Julian, who was holding up white paper. “The mail.”

Cursing softly, I hurried back, snatched the mail from his hands, and returned to the front door.

Only now did I notice Julian staring at me with that ridiculous grin. I rolled my eyes and pulled the front door shut.

I hadn’t run into the neighbors again today.

But the noise in the garden had reminded me of their presence, and I had given up trying to read anything. It had been too loud for that. What on earth were they doing with the garden fence? Were they dancing on it?

I finally used the time to tidy my room and sort my books into the shelf Mum had gifted me today, along with three new releases by Ana Huang. Organized by genre, I sorted my books.

Mr. Bardot had gifted me a history book about Blairville. 

Since I didn’t like it when people gave me something for my birthday, I wanted to at least flip through the book, even if it was about this boring hick town. Otherwise, I felt rude.

I reached for the next book, my hands hitting crumpled wrapping paper. 

Why...

The afternoon in the marketplace came to mind again. This had to be the pretty leather book I had picked up.

Carefully, I unwound the paper and set it aside. The book was incredibly lovely and looked high quality as well.

I opened to the first few blank pages and came across the storage space. It occurred to me that I could put my necklace in there, however I hadn’t found it yet. Hopefully, it was still in my suitcase, because I would not forgive myself for losing it.

As I looked at the book, an idea came to me.

I retrieved the mysterious envelope from the French philosophy book and slipped it into the small box.

My eyes lingered on the paper, and it was as if that damn envelope was calling to me. Curiosity was getting the better of me.

Was I supposed to?

Oh, damn it. This was long overdue. And Mum didn’t have to know about it... after all.

Just as I was about to reach for the letter, my window flew open with a clang, and a huge gust of wind rushed through my room. I hurried to the window to close it quickly.

This wretched stormy weather in this bloody small town!

When I returned to the shelf where I had put the book, I froze.

The envelope. It had disappeared.

“No...”

Suddenly, my cell phone rang.

I ran to the bed, overwhelmed, grabbed the black smartphone, and just pressed the side button to answer the call directly. It had to be Larissa.

“Hey, Larissa. I was thinking...”

“Is this Ms. Adams I’m talking to?” It wasn’t Larissa but the voice of a young woman. Maybe someone from the university?

“Yes...” I replied shyly.

“Please come to Moenia next Friday at 10:00 pm. And don’t forget to be on time and...”

“Excuse me, who am I talking to?”

“Diana, it’s important that you...”

Shit.

“There must be some misunderstanding, I’m not Diana, I’m...”

Suddenly, the phone was snatched out of my hand.

I spun around and looked at the horrified face of my mother, who gave me a warning look and then spoke to the person on the other side of the line.

“Yes, yes, it’s me... No, yes... no. I’ll be there. Good... I’ll see you.”

She hung up and looked at me indecisively.

“Sorry, I thought that was mine.” I pointed to the phone in her hand, which was basically mine again. We even had the same case. I had probably grabbed hers when I went upstairs. 

“Did she say anything weird to you? Did you say you were my daughter?”

“No, just that you were 10:00...”