Page 172 of Nocere

"I'm Rose…" I held tightly to Sam and she slipped her arm around my waist. "Are-are you serving me papers?"

"No." The woman shook her head. "I um, I'm Juni. I—" She stuttered and glanced between us. "I think...I think we might be related."

"What?" My stomach churned then gave a great lurch as my nerves tore me to bits.

"I think we're related," she repeated, then held the paper out to us. Her hand trembled almost as much as mine when I took it.

"Let me see." Sam urged it from me, then opened it to reveal a hand-written letter. It took me all of two seconds to recognize the neat scrawl.

"That's—my mom wrote that," I told her as a lump rose in my throat. I didn't read it and I looked back to the woman who stood in my doorway wringing her hands together.

"I didn't know about her until last year. My-my birth mother's name was Carly Bryant. I wrote to her once when I found out she was incarcerated. She wrote me back to tell me she was getting out of prison. I've-I've never met her before." Juni's voice faded as I stared at her.

Sam's expression fell as she turned over the letter to read the back. Sure enough, my mother's signature sat at the bottom. Tears tumbled down my face and my nails dug into Sam's hand when she met my gaze.

"Rosie," she said, her voice breathless as she looked between me and the stranger.

"What's it say?" I asked both of them as I tried to get a hold of myself enough to breathe.

"She said…" Juni drew in a deep breath. "That I have a sister and her name is Rose."

"That can't be true." I choked on my voice. "She lies all the time. It's not true."

"Easy, honey." Sam hugged me to her then handed Juni back the letter. "Your name is Juniper?"

The woman nodded, and she swiped at her own cheeks.

"I'm Sam. How old are you?" Sam's voice dropped to even-keeled doctor tones.

"Twenty-eight." Her soft voice unnerved me more when she hiccupped through her response.

"It's not true," I whispered to Sam while I hid my face against her chest.

"Rosie, look at her." She nudged my chin up so that I'd meet her gaze. "I want you to look at her."

"No. My mom lied. She—"

"Rosie, look at her." Sam pointed at Juniper and slowly, I pulled my eyes away and allowed them to fall on the stranger.

We stood facing each other, our height and hair nearly the same. Her light blue eyes and small frame didn't do anything to convince me otherwise. Her freckles, curvier hips, and confident posture, however, reflected nothing of familiarity.

"I think we're sisters," she said, finally, and offered me a small smile.

"I would've known you if you were born when I was five," I said, my tone tenser than I intended.

"I was born addicted and they took me from her right away. At least that's what my parents told me when I made them talk to me about my history." She sniffled and wiped her eyes on her sleeves. "I'm sorry. Maybe I went about this the wrong way."

Hurried footsteps jogged down the hall, and Alex swung around the corner as she bound up the steps. She stopped short in the doorway, a laundry basket in her arms, and glanced between the three of us standing there. "Whoa… What's going on?"

"We need to call Rebecca," said Sam, her voice soft.

Juniper and I stared at each other while Alex's gaze darted back and forth.

"Whoa," she repeated, her thumb jabbed in Juniper's direction. "Who's the clone?"

"Alex," scolded Sam, and shoved her inside. "Go call Rebecca and tell her she needs to get here right away."

"Sheesh." Alex dropped the basket on the floor and pulled out her phone. "Fine."

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