Before dawn had fully broken, Alea stepped out through the thin fog in the grounds of the Adinata family mansion. Pulling her jacket tightly around herself, she walked as quickly and quietly as she could. She paused near the gate and gazed at the majestic silhouette of the building behind her. For the first time in seventeen years, she felt like a stranger leaving the place she had always called home.
The address Dr. Surya had given her led her onto an intercity bus bound for a remote settlement. Throughout the journey, Alea kept staring blankly at the tiny, ink-stained baby photograph she carried. Anxious questions about Laras and Rendra Pratama burned relentlessly through her mind.
By midday, Alea arrived at a wooden stilt house enclosed by a rusted iron fence at the end of a dead-end alley. With her heart racing, she knocked on the gate.
A kind-faced middle-aged woman came out to greet her. The woman's expression jolted with shock the moment she heard Rendra's name.
"You... you're Alea, aren't you?" she whispered. Without answering Alea's startled look, the woman opened the gate.
Alea stepped inside cautiously. On the living room wall hung a photograph of Rendra as a young man beside a beautiful woman holding a baby.
"Who is this woman, ma'am?" Alea whispered.
"Her name is Laras, your biological mother," the woman replied softly. She explained that Rendra had left several days earlier, but had entrusted her with a brown envelope for Alea.
With stiff fingers, Alea opened Rendra's letter.
Alea, my daughter... You are not the baby who was supposed to be raised by the Adinata family. You are my flesh and blood, my biological daughter from my marriage to Laras.
That night, the babies were switched, and someone deliberately kept the switch hidden to cover up their scandal. If you want to uncover all these lies, follow Laras's trail...
"Where is Laras now?" Alea demanded, tears slipping down her cheeks.
The woman lowered her head sadly. "Laras died several years ago from a serious illness."
The words slammed into Alea's consciousness like a thunderous crash. Every joint in her body seemed to melt with weakness as she absorbed the fact that her biological mother was gone.
"But Laras left this keepsake specifically for you," the woman continued, handing her an old wooden box.
Inside lay a baby bracelet made of pure silver, engraved with the name Alea. "I'm your aunt, Laras's younger sister," the woman said, looking at Alea with pity.
But at the bottom of the wooden box, Alea found an old photograph of two baby girls lying side by side. On the back, black ink spelled out:
Baby A — Alea (Silver Bracelet) Baby B — Celine (Gold Bracelet)
Alea's body went rigid. "Then... Celine isn't the Adinata family's biological daughter either?!"
Her aunt nodded slowly. "That's right, Alea. Celine was also a victim of the baby switch that night."
Alea sank weakly into a seated position. Celine, the sister who had dominated the Adinata household all these years, had apparently been living in the same cage of lies! Then who was the Adinata family's true biological daughter?
Before she could voice the question, the roar of a car engine stopped right in front of the house. Her aunt immediately stood, her face deathly pale. "They... they've tracked this place down!"
Alea peered through a gap in the window and saw a black sedan with dark-tinted windows parked menacingly outside.
"You have to leave through the side door right now, Alea!" her aunt shouted in panic, pushing Alea toward the back hallway. "They're people hired to make sure this truth is buried forever!"
Alea clutched the silver bracelet, Rendra's letter, and the photograph of the two babies tightly against her chest. Her search had now become a dangerous struggle to uncover the truth behind the three lives whose fates had been tragically switched.