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She paused before answering "Who are you?"

The calico cat slipped inside through Miss LaBarge’s legs "It’s nize me "Renée Froet in?"

"I squeezed through the bars," I said, putting e jolted atthe tip of the shovel deeper into the gap

I searched her face, baffled Maybe she had lost herthis way "I don’t want anything I--I didn’t know you were going to be here But now that you are, I just--I’d like to talk to you Everyone thinks you died" I lowered my voice "It was on the news I went to your funeral I watched randfather bury you in the ocean But now you’re here"

She looked at me, and then at Noah "You’re both students at Gottfried?"

"Lycée St Clément," Noah said

"What are your names?" she asked

"Renée Winters," I said

"Noah Fontaine"

Miss LaBarge squinted atshe hadn’t seen before "Winters? The daughter of Lydia and Robert?"

I loosened"Yes," I said, confused "You knew the, she receded into the darkness

"Wait!" I yelled, but it was too late She had already shut the door

I rang the bell again and then collapsed with a sigh on the edge of a ce inside hissed and ju up at Noah

He put a finger to his lips On the other side of the door, I heard so, and then just as abruptly as it had closed, the door reopened

"Get inside," she said, her eyes darting about the quiet street behind us as we shuffled past her

The convent was dark and drafty After bolting the locks, Miss LaBarge gave us a quick glance She led us through a series of rooms, each one sparsely decorated with little more than a table and a few chairs There were cats everywhere--curled around the banister, stretching on the sills, yawning from beneath the radiators A Persian jumped down from a mantel and followed us until we reached the kitchen Miss LaBarge turned on the overhead lightbulb, which bathed her in a dingy yello

There she was: her plain brown hair, sirl Leaning on the back of a chair, she opened her ed her ht of her in the light, I shuddered, ht

This woe, but at the same tiles weren’t correct Her cheekbones looked a little higher; her jawline looked a little heavier; the wrinkles around her eyes looked a little less defined, as if she were a grainy photocopy of the real Annette

She removed the lid from a dented kettle, crossed to the sink, and filled the kettle under the faucet "Tea?"

I ed e moved too briskly about the room I watched, horrified, as she sliced a lee always preferred creae at all"

The iaveher hands on a dish towel, she pulled out two chairs at a plain wooden table "Please, sit down"

Noah sat down at the end of the table, but I didn’t ry, so angry Who was this wos of tea on the table for us, she took a seat across froe," she said "I’er sister"

I nearly spilled ust I’ suddenly e this year; I had been seeing her sister It seemed too easy and too dreary to be true

She frowned "You look disappointed"

"I thought--"

"You thought she was still alive You wish I were someone else" Collette’s eyes had a coldness to them, and her hands were balled into fists, as if she were ready to fight She leaned back in her chair "I’m sorry"

"So there’s no way she’s still alive?" I uttered, only realizing then that somewhere within e had survived