Dark Shadows of the Past

Chapter Twenty-Two

That same night, Dan called Alexis and arranged for Christina to visit Anna Maria the next morning.

"It's all settled," he said, hanging up the phone.

"Thank you," Christina whispered, taking a deep breath. "I still can't get used to the idea that I have a twin sister."

"Well, there is something else..." Dan said, and Christina glanced at him inquiringly. "Perdini passed away."

Christina kept silent, staring out of the window.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm wondering if he had any family," she said.

"I have no idea," Dan replied. "The police will try to find out and notify them."

"If he doesn't have anybody, I'll take care of the funeral arrangements," she said.

"Okay," Dan agreed, not knowing what else to say. Even though Perdini was a mobster, he had saved Christina's life. So he could understand that she wanted to do something for him.

***

Christina spent the whole night preparing what she was going to tell her sister. But by the time she arrived at the police station, she had forgotten everything. Dan drove her there, and even though he offered to accompany her inside, Christina refused. She needed to be alone with her sister.

Stepping inside the tiny interrogation room, her heart started fluttering. Even though the weather was still warm, and there was no air-conditioning on, Christina felt a cold draft sweeping through her body. She gazed at the wall with the one-way glass window and at the metal table and the two chairs-the only furniture in the room.

Feeling weak at the knees, she sank onto one of the chairs and glanced around the impersonal room. Dread washed over her, thinking that her sister was kept in a room similar to this one. She had to do something... She had to get her out of prison as soon as possible.

Waiting for Anna Maria to be brought in, Christina felt restless. The opening of the door startled her and turning around, Christina was shocked to see her again. She still couldn't get used to the idea that someone looked exactly like her.

Anna Maria seemed tired, and her pretty face was pale.

"How are you?" Christina asked, worried. "Are you feeling all right?"

"I'm okay," Anna Maria replied and sank into the other chair like a sack of flour-she didn't sound okay at all.

Christina shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "I'm Christina... I mean, Sophia," Christina introduced herself, feeling awkward.

"I know," the girl replied, keeping her eyes on her hands laced together on top of the metal table.

"This is very hard for me. I never knew I had a sister, and I'm not used to the idea, yet," Christina admitted, and Anna Maria's glanced at her.

Their gazes locked for a few moments, and silence stretched in the room.

"I understand... I was shocked myself. Grandma never told me about you," the girl replied after a while, and Christina picked up the light Italian accent in her voice. "As a matter of fact, she didn't tell me a lot of things," Anna Maria added, and Christina could sense the sadness in her voice.

"I grew up believing that my mother was an unmarried, distant relative of our grandmother who died giving birth and had no other relatives to take care of me. Adriana, whom I believed to be my great-aunt, took me in and raised me as a granddaughter. She even asked me to call her grandmother, and I didn't think much of it since she was an old lady with no family left. At least, that's what she had told me," Anna Maria explained while tears welled up in her eyes.