“Kit, but this is wonderful,” Tina said softly. “It means you have a half-sister. Were you able to find her?”

Kit looked at Tina with such pain and grief in her eyes that Tina immediately understood the meaning of it.

“She died, didn’t she? That’s why it is so painful for you to hear about Bette losing her sister.”

“Yes,” Kit answered, wiping her tears with a handkerchief that Alice handed to her. “I just wish that I’d met her. I always wanted to have a sister.” She sighed deeply and blew her runny nose before returning the handkerchief to Alice.

“Oh, you can keep it,” Alice said with grimace, “I have hundreds of them at home.”

“You don’t have any,” Tina said, smiling at Alice’s attempt to look disgusted. “You are such a liar.”

“Oh my God, Tina,” Alice suddenly exclaimed, grinning mischievously. “I just solved Bette’s identity problem. Kit, is it certain…are you absolutely certain that your sister has passed away?”

“Yes,” Kit replied reluctantly, unsure where Alice was going with this. “The private detective that I hired got me her birth and death certificates.”

“When was she born?” Alice asked again, making notes in her notebook.

“Um, in…1976, yes, in December of 1976. She died when she was only 13 years old in a skiing accident up in the Alps. Alice, what are you trying to say?” Kit asked, getting nervous at this side of Alice who was rubbing her hands and giggling excitedly.

“I think I know,” Tina answered instead, looking at Alice, not knowing if she should laugh or cry. “I think Alice has an idea of making Bette your half-sister.”

“Alice, are you crazy?” Kit cried out, thinking about consequences if that scheme was discovered.

“Kit, think about it…there’s no risk. Who knows about your sister? Nobody, just you and the private detective you hired. Does Melvin, your father, know that he had another daughter and that she passed away?”

“No,” Kit replied, “He only knows that it was a girl. He doesn’t want to hear anything about her. I tried to talk to him several times but he shut me down every time I brought her up, so I stopped…and then we stopped talking altogether.”  

“I think it’s about time we introduced Bette to Melvin and to the rest of the world as your half-sister. She was raised in Europe but you’d found her and brought her to America.”