Gone Missing Part 2

Cassie is in utter shock. She opens her mouth to speak, but she’s suddenly lost the ability. Mom and dad said my twin sister died not too long after we were born. I don’t understand who’s sitting in front of me right now. Melanie just sits and stares at Cassie. Cassie finally gets the courage to speak. Who are you? My parents told me you were dead? Are you Melanie? I didn’t even know I had a twin sister until I received a letter yesterday. Melanie confirms her identity to Cassie. My name is Melanie, yes. Paul and Susan are my birth parents, but for some reason they chose to keep me locked away all these years. They never told you about me and then yesterday they told you I had died. I haven’t been dead, Cassie. I’m not just a figment of your imagination. This is real and I’m sitting right here in front of you. Cassie just stares now. Why did they choose to keep you locked away? What does that mean? Melanie explains to Cassie that Paul and Susan had only wanted one child, but ended up with 2. Instead of embracing both children and loving them both equally, they chose to love the first born and cast away the second child.

Melanie had been locked away in an orphanage, but Paul and Susan told them never to find parents for her. They wanted her to sit in the orphanage until she was 18 and then to let her go out on her own. Melanie goes on to explain that Paul and Susan would visit her once every year on her birthday and give her a new doll to play with, but they never spoke. One night Melanie got the courage to ask one of the caregivers why she was in an orphanage if she had parents. She grew to learn that only children without parents were kept in orphanages. Children seeking new parents were her friends and she didn’t understand why she was one of them. The caregiver would never tell her why until one night right before Melanie’s 18th birthday. The caregiver sat her down and told her what had become of her and why her parents left her alone.

The caregiver told her she had a twin sister named Cassie and that her parents only wanted one child and chose to give her away. Melanie told her she wanted to find Cassie so the caregiver steered her in the right direction, but Paul and Susan had given a false address and Melanie was left looking on her own. Melanie has been looking for Cassie ever since.

How can that be? My parents are the nicest parents. All of my friends love them. I can’t imagine that they would have a second child and lie about it or give them up. They’ve embraced all of my friends like they were their own children, so why give up a child that was actually theirs? We need to get to the bottom of this, Melanie. There’s something more we aren’t being told. I always wanted a sibling, but they always told me that mom couldn’t give me a sibling. Melanie, come back to their house with me so we can get this figured out once and for all.

No, they abandoned me. I don’t want to have anything to do with them. I wanted to tell you I was alive because I’ve always felt connected to you. Even before my caregiver told me you existed, I felt like I belonged to someone somewhere. It was you, Cassie. We belong together. We’re twins and they tore us apart. I can’t go back there.

But don’t you want to know why they did this? They never would have left one of their children behind like this. I know it. Whether they only wanted one child or two, they never would have just left you somewhere alone. The fact that they visited you once a year has to mean something more, right? If they didn’t want you, they would never have come to visit. There has to be something more to this story. There has to be something the caregiver wasn’t telling you.

Cassie talks Melanie into coming back to her apartment so they can talk some more. Cassie shows Melanie pictures of her parents and tells stories of how nice they have been to her. She shows her all the dolls they used to buy her for her birthday. Every year a new doll. Wait. Those are the same dolls Paul and Susan used to leave me when I was in the orphanage. I have those exact same dolls.