The Rainy Night That Changed Everything

St. Mary’s Orphanage

“They’ll Be Separated”

A young nurse noticed him staring.

She explained quietly that the girls had been found together, abandoned on church steps in the middle of the night, wrapped in the same blanket.

“No names. No notes,” she said softly. “People are willing to adopt one… maybe two. But never all. They’ll be separated soon.”

Separated.

The word struck him like a blade.

He thought of Anne’s voice.

Of her belief that family was chosen, not inherited.

His throat tightened.

“What if someone took them all?” he whispered.