{"id":12691,"date":"2025-08-17T18:21:55","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T13:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pni.net.pk\/us\/?p=12691"},"modified":"2026-02-20T23:50:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T18:50:52","slug":"the-sister-fate-had-been-saving-for-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pni.net.pk\/us\/the-sister-fate-had-been-saving-for-me\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Sister Fate Had Been Saving for Me\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

In every photo of me until I was six, my face is covered in scratches.<\/p>\n

My parents always said it was because printers were low quality back then.<\/p>\n

Today, while visiting my aunt, I found an old photo album from a family gathering in 1992.<\/p>\n

I froze. My face was scratched out again\u2014but these weren\u2019t cheap reprints. These were originals, the glossy kind you only got from professional film processing. Someone had intentionally dragged something sharp across my image. Every. Single. Time.<\/p>\n

And then I noticed something else.<\/p>\n

On the back of one of the pictures, in faded blue ink, was a name I\u2019d never heard before: Mina.<\/em><\/p>\n

I flipped faster through the album now, my pulse racing. Some photos didn\u2019t have me in them at all. Others had me blurred in the background, like an afterthought. And in one family group shot, with everyone smiling around a birthday cake, I was simply\u2026 gone. Cut out, leaving behind a jagged outline, like a missing puzzle piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cAunt Caris,\u201d I whispered, my throat tight. \u201cDo you know who Mina is?\u201d<\/p>\n

She froze, lips parting like she wanted to lie. But then she sighed, closing the album with careful hands. \u201cYou weren\u2019t supposed to find these.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

Caris\u2019s eyes softened. \u201cMina was your half-sister.\u201d<\/p>\n

My ears rang. \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was born a year before you. Your father had an affair. When your mother found out, it nearly destroyed her. Mina\u2019s mother left suddenly, and for a while, your parents tried to raise both of you together. But\u2026 it was tense. When Mina died in an accident\u2026\u201d Caris swallowed. \u201cYour mom blamed herself. She couldn\u2019t stand reminders. Even you.\u201d<\/p>\n

I felt the floor tilt beneath me. \u201cShe scratched me out because I reminded her of Mina?\u201d<\/p>\n

Caris nodded, tears forming. \u201cShe was broken. It wasn\u2019t fair. But grief makes people cruel sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

I thought of my mother\u2014distant, cold, always seeming weighed down. I used to believe she just wasn\u2019t maternal. But maybe she was carrying a ghost all along.<\/p>\n

Later, I dug out my own childhood photos. The same pattern: my face slashed, scribbled, cut out. But this time, I noticed something I\u2019d never seen before\u2014a faint corner of another child, caught at the edge of a ripped picture.<\/p>\n

A girl. Black hair. Pale skin. Eyes like mine.<\/p>\n

I scanned the photo, adjusted the brightness. The resemblance was undeniable. We could\u2019ve been twins.<\/p>\n

The next morning, I went to the county archives. After hours of waiting, the clerk returned with a thin file.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a birth record,\u201d she said. \u201cMina Roselyn Haddix. Born August 15, 1985.\u201d<\/p>\n

My stomach flipped.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut,\u201d she added, frowning, \u201cthere\u2019s no death certificate. No accident report either. Nothing at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which meant either the records were lost\u2014or my aunt\u2019s story wasn\u2019t true.<\/p>\n

That night, I messaged my father. We hadn\u2019t spoken in months, but he replied almost instantly: We need to talk. There are things I should\u2019ve told you years ago.<\/em><\/p>\n

We met at a small diner the next morning. His hands trembled as he held his coffee.<\/p>\n

\u201cMina didn\u2019t die,\u201d he said. \u201cShe was taken.\u201d<\/p>\n

My heart pounded. \u201cTaken?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHer mother came back. Took her away. Disappeared. I searched for years, but\u2026 nothing. Your mom couldn\u2019t cope. She hated herself for letting it happen, and she took that pain out on you.\u201d His eyes filled with shame. \u201cI should\u2019ve stopped her. I should\u2019ve protected you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere is Mina now?\u201d<\/p>\n

He shook his head. \u201cI don\u2019t know. But I still hope she\u2019s out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

That night, I sat staring at the torn photo of the girl who might still be alive\u2014my sister.<\/p>\n

For years, I thought I was unwanted. Invisible. But maybe I wasn\u2019t erased because I didn\u2019t matter. Maybe I was erased because I mattered too much.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019m carefully piecing the old photos back together. Not with Photoshop, but by hand\u2014taping the fragments, preserving the scars.<\/p>\n

Because no one deserves to be cut out of their own story.<\/p>\n

And though I may never find Mina, I\u2019ve stopped seeing myself as the ghost in my family\u2019s photos. I\u2019m here. Whole. And finally ready to forgive the silence that shaped me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In every photo of me until I was six, my face is covered in scratches. My parents always said it was because printers were low quality back then. Today, while visiting my aunt, I found an old photo album from a family gathering in 1992. I froze. My face was scratched out again\u2014but these weren\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tales"],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cThe Sister Fate Had Been Saving for Me\u201d<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In every photo of me until I was six, my face is covered in scratches. My parents always said it was because printers were low quality back then. 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