“Every day my daughter would come back from the kindergarten saying, ‘There’s a girl in my teacher’s house who’s exactly like me.’ I began to investigate in silence… and discovered a cruel secret linked to my husband’s family.”

Not “more or less similar.”

Identical.

The same eyes.
The same nose.
The same shape of the face.
Even the same expression when turning the head.

For a second, I felt like I was seeing my duplicate daughter.

I was paralyzed by the car, unable to breathe.

And at that moment, a thought went through me like ice:

Who was that girl…
and why was my daughter’s face?

What I discovered later led me to a cruel secret buried in my husband’s family…
one who should never have come out,
but that, somehow, I had ended up playing in the yard of a daycare, right in front of me.

I was paralyzed by the car, unable to take the girl’s gaze away in the yard.

I was squatting next to a small flower garden, using a yellow plastic stick to fill a bucket. Her brown hair fell soft, slightly wavy from moisture. Her small neck, her delicate ears, her fine nose and those round eyes… everything was identical to Valeria.

I don’t know how long I stayed there.

Until the door of the house opened and Mrs. Adriana went out.

When he saw me, he stopped just a second. But that second was enough to understand everything.

She knew it.

And I wasn’t surprised that I had discovered it.

“Did you arrive early today?” he asked, trying to sound calm, though his hands were squeezing a kitchen rag.

I didn’t answer. I just pointed to the girl.

Who is she?

Silence.

“Who is it?” I repeated, with a trembling voice.

Adriana looked down.

“She’s my niece.

I let out a dry laugh.

“His niece?” And coincidentally has my daughter’s face?

The girl looked up and looked at me.

My heart stopped again.

It was not just similar.