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“They don’t look fake,” Abby said.“They have that raised stamp from the hospital.”

Morgan’s body went limp.“Why would Mom hide these if they weren’t our real ones.”

“So, you think the ones we have at home are phony?”Charlie asked.

“None of this makes sense,” Abby said.“Were we even born?”

“You’re right.We don’t exist,” Morgan said to Abby, then interlaced her fingers to stop herself from cracking her knuckles.“I need to sit down,” she said.She worried her legs might crumple beneath her.

Morgan made her way down to the floor, and Charlie and Abby sat next to her.Each had a far-off, cloudy gaze.Morgan tapped her fist against her lips as if she wanted something to come out of her mouth that would be a reasonable explanation.

Abby pointed to the document she was holding.“This says I was born in January, not March, and my last name isn’t Weiss; it’s Brenner.”

“All of these say our last name is Brenner,” Morgan said.

“If those are our real birth certificates, then who are we?”Charlie said.

“Where does yours say you were born?”Abby asked Charlie.

Charlie looked at both her and Morgan’s papers.“Morgan and I were born at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn,” Charlie said.

“Mine says I was born at Providence St.Joseph’s Medical Center in Burbank, California.I thought Mom left our fatherafterI was born,” Abby said.

“Mom told us a lot of things that are not true.She had to have moved to Los Angeles when she was still pregnant with you,” Morgan said to Abby.

“So, if thesearereal, our dad’s last name is Brenner, not Weiss,” Charlie said.

“Yes, Brian Brenner,” Morgan said.

“That’s why we couldn’t find his obituary on the internet,” Abby said.“We had the wrong name.”

Morgan jumped up and sat down at Carla’s computer.Charlie and Abby got up and stood on each side of Morgan.Morgan typed in the password Brenner4, and the computer brought up Carla’s app screen.

“You’re in,” Abby said.

“How did you figure out the password?”Charlie asked.

“It hit me when I saw our real last names.I just added Mom’s favorite number,” Morgan said.

Abby nodded vigorously.“Mom used to say we were the four musketeers.”

Morgan signed into her mother’s email as Abby and Charlie hovered nearby like children waiting for their parents to open the Fruit Loops-decorated frame they’d made at school.Morgan clicked on every email, going back as far as she could.

“There’s nothing here,” Morgan said.

“We’ve hit another dead end,” Charlie said.

“Maybe not,” Abby said.“I have an idea.”

Morgan got out of the chair so Abby could sit.Abby searched obituaries for Brian Brenner in the tri-state area.There were two, and both men had died in the last four years and were over the age of seventy when they passed away.“There’s no obituary,” Abby said.

“What if he’s not dead?”Charlie asked.

Abby picked up a pencil and started tapping it on the desktop.“What if Mom knew he was alive and kept it from us.”

Morgan couldn’t concentrate because of the rhythmic noise Abby was making.She reached over, took the pencil from Abby’s hand, and dropped it on the floor with the other office supplies.

“Mom wouldn’t do that.She knew how hard it was for us growing up without him,” Morgan said.