Grandmother looked at Lilia and said:"
_I remember well the day you brought her here for the first time... she was so tiny... she could barely hold her head up."
Marline dropped her fork, and a strange silence filled the room. She stammered:"
_Mother, Lilia was really small... like any child."
But the grandmother didn't turn to her. Instead, she looked directly at Céline and said:"
_You were little back then, but you asked me: Where did Lilia come from? And I didn't know what to tell you."
Céline's heart began to race. She felt as if the ground was trembling beneath her. In a low voice, she said:"
_My parents found her, didn't they? She's not their real daughter..."
The grandmother wasn't surprised. She sighed like someone exhausted from keeping secrets.
_"It was a cold evening... Marx called me and said they had found a baby wrapped in a blanket, near the bus stop. He said they would take care of her for a while. But they kept her. They told no one. Not the authorities, not the family, no one."
Marline quickly said:"
_Enough, Mother... you have no right to reveal this."
The grandmother replied dryly:"
_And do you have the right to decide to send her away? I heard your conversation when I visited last month. Do you think I don't hear?"
Marline's face turned pale. Céline stared at her as if realizing her grandmother knew everything. She asked in a trembling voice:"
_Do you know where she came from? Who her parents are?"
The grandmother shook her head:"
_No one knows. Even the papers that came with her were fabricated later. Marx handled it... I don't know how, but he managed to register her under a fake name."
Lilia interrupted them as she walked into the room holding a flower:"
_Look, sister Céline! I made you a flower crown!"
Céline looked at her, and tears nearly welled in her eyes. How much innocence hid behind those eyes? How could her parents abandon her? Who was this child? And why was Marline afraid of the truth?
To be continued...