Metanoia

Chapter 6

five hours earlier

Things have been falling apart.

Angelo and Romeo were furious after hearing what happened to Darcy but after hearing that the hospital had lost her they both flew into a rage, storming out of the hospital in different directions going off to do god knows what. Romeo asked us to pick him up later that day but Angelo stayed out all night.

Luca has become really quiet. I think he's just sad. He's always been the most caring, sensitive one out of all of us and after hearing about Darcy I think the empath in him is struggling. It's so strange seeing them like this, they're usually the calm, cheerful ones but what was said in that doctor's office has deeply effected them.

Lorenzo has been by far the worst. We all know that he views Darcy as his own daughter so we understand why he's reacted the way he has. He has completely shut down, only replying in grunts to questions and being completely useless in the process of finding Darcy.

The very slow process.

We took Darcy's file from the hospital which they were very reluctant to give us but we made it clear that it wasn't a choice. It had everything we needed to know about Darcy which was hard to see because it included pictures of all her injuries.

I think it really hit me when I saw the file reference her Heterochromia. When Darcy was born she came out with one bright green eye and one light brown, almost orange. Seeing that made me realise that this was definitely our Darcy.

The hospital said that she was housed in a care facility and with only two orphanages in the general area and only eight active foster families in the area surrounding the hospital you would think that would be easy to find her. But no.

Me and Arlo visited and searched every last one, each one claiming they'd never heard of her. So either one of them is lying or we need to widen our search. I prayed that it was the latter because after searching those run down, disgusting, drug filled places I hoped that we wouldn't find our sister in any of them.

We've decided to take a different root. Currently Me, Arlo and Alonzo are sitting in the cushy office of a city worker, watching her go through her file cabinet looking for the appropriate one. "Ah!" She finally exclaims, "Found it," She announces, sounding proud of her self.

She drops the hefty folder on the desk in front of us, "There, every care facility in our area and the name of all those living in them," She smiles, plopping back down in her leather chair, "Take your time."

We split the folder into three sections, Me and Arlo looking through one orphanage each and Alonzo looking through the foster homes. The office falls into silence as we concentrate, only occasionally being interrupted by the office worker smacking her gum.

After several minutes the tiny black font starts making my eyes blur but through my clouded vision I spot a name. Russo, Darcy: Age six. I rub my eyes, trying to focus them as I read the small sentence over and over again. I look up to the corner and see that it was dated three years ago, meaning it perfectly alines with Darcy's age.

We had visited this orphange the day after we left the hospital, they swore up and down that they'd never heard of a Darcy Russo.

"Look," I say, facing the sheet of paper in their direction. Their eyes widen and we immediately get out of our seats and head towards the door. "Thanks for the help," Arlo calls back to the lady as I slam the door.