After my parents died, I was the only family she had left.

That was the complete story I had always been told.

Now, Samantha Cross was standing in front of me, claiming that there had always been someone else in the picture.

“Why on earth would Madeline keep a sister hidden from me?” I asked, struggling to process the revelation.

Samantha did not offer an answer right away.

Instead, she gently turned the aged photograph over in her hands, tracing the edges.

“It was not entirely a matter of hiding her,” Samantha clarified carefully.