Once again, Cress and Jacin made their way to the palace. Kinney was there, along with a woman who looked to be in her early 50s. Kinney smiled up at them. It seemed like with Queen Cinder's rule, the guards were more relaxed, and started even smiling in duty, something that had never happened before during Levana's time.

"Hey Cress! I want you to meet Mabel Kinney. She's my mother, and the social worker I told you about," Kinney gave his mother a hug.

Now that Cress took a better look at them, she could see the resemblance. Mabel Kinney was pretty, and had the same face structure and eyes as Kinney.

"Well, you must be Cress," the old woman smiled cheerfully. "Liam's told me about your special case. but before I show you my files, I will have to say this. There is nothing on shells, as they have no need for adoption, and were given away at birth. There will probably only be your brother's, so don't be too disappointed when you can't find your own case Cress, alright dear?" Mabel's eyes were kind, and made Cress feel a little better.

"Okay, thanks for the information. I'll just look for my brother's case then. Do have any adoptions that happened around April 7th? That's when my twin and I were born, and that's probably when the adoption happened."(I don't know how the years work in the future, so I don't want to make any mistakes) Mabel smiled.

"I might. Follow me." With that, Mrs. Kinney turned and led the trio into a long hallway and stopped at a door at the end.

"Come on, this is my office. Watch out, it's a little cramped for all three of us. Liam's still on duty, so he can't come with us." Mable pushed open the door and stepped inside, with Cress and Jacin following suit.

The office was indeed cramped, and Cress could see a rack of files on the back wall. Mabel came to stand beside them, making Cress jump. She walked so silently!

"Here's all the cases, take your time. I'll be back in about 30 minutes. Hope you find something!" Mabel waved, and walked out of the room, leaving Cress and Jacin at the mercy of the towering rack.

"Okay, so look for a file that's labelled Sage Dmitri Darnel, or Cylia Stell Darnel. Or look for the date. April 7th." Cress instructed, looking herself. Jacin plopped himself down, and promptly started looking through a file. Cress did the same, and braced herself for a long 30 minutes. There wasn't a lot of cases, Cress had to admit, but there was still plenty to make finding Cress's twin brother's a challenge.

20 minutes later

"Cress, I think I found something. It doesn't have your parents name on it, but the date's the same,"Jacin called out excitedly. Cress scooted eagerly beside him. Together, they opened the file hurriedly, both eager to look inside.

At first, there was only some adoption papers, and a signature. Cress could only make out a G and C. Hm, Cress thought, maybe they would find the name somewhere else. Jacin turned the page, and there was a birth certificate. First name: Jacin. Legal last name: declined. Gender:Male. Birth:April 7th (whatever year he was born in) Time:1300 hours.

Jacin stared in shock. That was his name, his birthday. This couldn't be true, it was probably a coincidence.

In messy slanted handwriting, Cress read the following out loud.

"Information pertaining to adoption: Birth parents decline to state their name, or reveal their last name on their son's birth certificate. I don't know why, but orders are orders" Cress trembled and turned to the next page. There was a picture of baby boy with blond hair, sleeping in a blue blanket decorated with moons.

Next to it, there was another picture with a label. A smiling man in a guard's uniform and a strawberry blond woman standing next to him. Garrison and Josie Clay, the caption read.

Reason of adoption:Infertility, Josie Clay is infertile, and cannot produce a child. Both spouses are willing for adoption.

On the bottom of the page was a signature. The same as the one as Cress saw on the first page. Again, she could only make out a G and a C. Garrison Clay, Cress realized. Closing the file, Cress stood up, turning towards Jacin, who was trembling.

"Jacin, are you okay? I know that wasn't what we were expecting. I'm so sorry," With that, Cress sat down and started crying. Cress's sniffles and tears seemed to have bring Jacin out of his stupor.

"Cress? Don't cry. What's wrong? Of all the people crying, it should be me," Jacin comforted Cress. Instead, Cress looked up at Jacin with mournful eyes.

"I'm sorry Jacin, I should never have dragged you into this. You should never have had to know this. You could just have lived a happily ever after with your family," Cress sobbed. Jacin was shocked.

"Cress, I'm not mad at you. You never dragged me into this. I offered to help you. And besides, I should know this kind of information. In all, I should be thanking you. For letting me know this," Jacin did his best to sound reassuring, just like he would comfort Winter when she had one of her nightmares. Cress let out another sniffle and looked up.

"Really? You aren't mad? I'm still really sorry," Cress hiccuped.

"Really, I'm not mad. How about you go back to Thorne, while I go talk to my paren-my guardians." Jacin couldn't bring himself to say the words. Parents. Someone who was there for you all the time. Someone you were related to. Something Garrison and Josie were not. Cress picked herself up and nodded.

"That's a good idea. And Jacin, I hope you find your real parents. Huh, we fit together. I need a brother, and you need to find your parents." Cress smiled weakly. "Jacin, if you need help with anything, like technology skills, or anything at that, you can always ask me."

Jacin smiled, a genuine one. "Thank you Crescent."

What do you think? Any guesses? The next chapter will be Jacin's POV, with his conversation with his not parents. It will be coming out soon. I am on vacay in South Korea, so the timing of my next post will be off. Be prepared for a post at like 2 in the morning for all you Americans!

-starstruck02