It wasn’t often that Ieni snuck into the room her parents’ home office. Actually, she’d never felt a need to sneak in there before, being content to let them do whatever it was they did in peace and privacy. But she’d accidentally seen a crumpled note by the trashcan in the kitchen from her dad telling her mom to check the obituaries for a Natasha Ivanovitch. Which wouldn’t have been that odd. Except that when she had gone to see for herself, assuming that it was some old friend of her parents, it had been an older lady instead. And it had ever so briefly mentioned her birth mother.

Which was now why she was rooting through the home office, looking for anything that might tell her how she was connected to some old russian lady. Doing her best to sift quietly and using the flashlight in her phone, Ieni went through every drawer and file folder meticulously. And while some of what she found was certainly interesting, it wasn’t until she’d found the box where her mom stored all sorts of sentimental s**t that she began to get somewhere. Going through each little invitation or announcement really brought home just what a goofball her mom was. Imagine keeping some of this stuff for so long…

Ieni paused and squinted at the faded gold print on a save the date card. It was for the wedding of her birth mother to a Gregory Ivanovitch. Same last name as the old lady. And years before she’d been born. Okay, so this was promising. Snapping a quick picture with her phone, Ieni continued to go through cards until she’d found a birth announcement for a Gabrielle and an obituary for Gregory. She meticulously took a snap of everything she could find involving the name Ivanovitch before putting everything back and carefully covering her tracks.

Creeping back to her room, Ieni crawled up into her bed and sat for a moment, thinking hard. She couldn’t help but remember that day she’d seen an older woman nearly faint upon seeing. How fast her parents had ushered her away. Through the veil of foggy memory, Ieni thought that the old lady had looked very much as if she’d seen a ghost. And the picture in the obituary certainly gelled with how Ieni remembered her looking.

Almost more interesting was the birth announcement for Gabrielle. Apparently, Ieni had a sister she’d never known about. That she really should have known about. All Ieni could hope was that this mysterious sister hadn’t been as ******** up by their mother as she had. Setting the phone down with a sigh, Ieni’s mind drifted. That poor old lady. She really had looked shocked. Almost as shocked as Corvus had looked when she’d first met Namaka…

Sitting bolt upright in bed, Ieni mulled over the unbidden thought. Corvus had, for a moment, thought she was seeing the ghost of her very dead friend. The old lady had had a similar expression. Pulling up the phone and staring intently at all the pictures she’d taken, Ieni came to a conclusion.

Opening her window and powering up before sneaking out, she had one determined thought. She needed to talk to Corvus. She wanted to know more about her sister.