Sissi lay on her bed, thinking about everything she had found out. She idly twisted the chain of her necklace around her neck and then remembered the one she had discarded the night before. Jumping up, she ran to her dressing table and searched through all of the boxes. She found it last where her aunt had put it. Remembering when she woke up in the morning, she looked in the mirror and imitated her aunt; holding it up to the light and watching it twirl around, hypnotically. There was certainly something mysterious about it.
Returning to her bed, she examined it carefully. She noticed some tiny scratches on the gold side of the heart. Curious, she went to her writing desk and restored her attention to the contents of the file. The necklace on one side and the page on the other, she disregarded both and stared at the picture again. There were two more there. She picked them out and looked at them. Something was nagging at her. Where was her father? Surely he should have been in one of those pictures? Had he been away at the time? If he had, it hasn't been mentioned to her. Sissi knew it was a silly detail but she couldn't let it go. Her mother had always told her how much they had longed for her to be born, how they were so proud when she was. Sissi had always imagined her parents together for that moment. Now she wasn't so sure. Maybe her aunt knew. Sissi was wondering about the sudden reluctance to ask when she became aware of footsteps outside her room. A polite knock and a bade entry later, the door opened and Athos leaned his head around the door, enquiring about lunch.
'Lunch? I've just had breakfast!'
'Let's compromise on that. Are you joining us for a meal downstairs soon?'
'I'm not really hungry.'
'No reason to deprive us of your pleasant company.' Athos smiled encouragingly. 'If I can prise you away from your papers.' Sissi thought she might as well. He was glad to hear it.
'I'll come down in a minute' she told him. Athos nodded and closed the door once more. Putting the file away, Sissi tried to shake off the feeling that something wasn't quite right.
Thinking back on it, Sissi didn't know why she hadn't realised it sooner, her aunt's reaction to her questions, the presence of the necklace that had shadowed the background and the way the pictures kept nagging at the back of her mind. If she had read the page sooner, she would have spotted what it was. Below her full name, written out in old fashioned handwriting, were the most obvious details. Mother and father. And not as she knew them.
Her heart felt as cold as ice as she picked it up and read the name that was on her precious paper. She had taken it for granted that Eugenie's name was going to be on there, she hadn't even looked. But catching her eye was something different. Her vision blurred as she read and reread the name. Was this even her file? She must go back and ask about it. The convent must have made a mistake!