I sat down on the edge of the bed, phone pressed to my ear, trying to process.
Bianca was dead.
My twin sister. The person I'd shared a womb with. Who'd drugged me, betrayed me, disappeared.
Dead.
"When?" I managed. "When did it happen?"
"Preliminary estimates put time of death around Sunday evening. A neighbor reported a concerning smell. Local police found her Monday morning."
Two days ago. Bianca had been dead for two days and I hadn't known. Hadn't felt it.
Weren't twins supposed to sense these things?
"The State Department is coordinating the return of her remains. We'll be in touch about arrangements. Again, I'm very sorry for your loss."
After she hung up, I sat in silence, staring at nothing.
Bianca was dead.
I should feel something. Grief. Loss. Something.
Instead, I felt numb.
Cesare appeared in the doorway, already dressed for the day. "Who was that?"
"The FBI." My voice sounded distant, not quite my own. "Bianca's dead. Overdose in Prague. They found her yesterday."
He crossed to me immediately, pulled me into his arms. "Paola—"
"I don't know how I feel," I admitted. "She's my sister. My twin. And I don't know if I'm sad or relieved or angry that she's gone before I could—" Before I could what? Forgive her? Understand her?
"You're allowed to feel complicated things."
"She drugged me. Stole my life. Ran away. And now she's dead. I’ll never get to—" My voice broke.
The tears came then. Not clean grief, but messy, complicated emotion. Anger and loss and guilt all tangled together.
I cried for the sister I'd had as a child. For the person she'd become. For the relationship we'd never repair now.
Cesare held me through it all, one hand on my back, the other on my belly where Lucia kicked—life and death happening simultaneously.
"I need to tell my father," I said eventually, pulling back. "He should know."
"Do you want me to call him?"
"No. I'll do it."
I dialed Giovanni's number with shaking hands.
He answered on the second ring. "Paola?"
"Papa. It's Bianca. She's—" I couldn't say it. "The FBI called. She died. Overdose in Prague."
Silence. Then a sound I'd never heard from my father before.
A sob.
