Stacy’s father, Fred, has always been a closed book to Stacy and never treats her with respect. She has always wondered why he favors her brothers over her, so she decided to look into it.  Now she holds an envelope with all the answers in her hands. She has waited so long for this moment. She is about to discover why her father never liked her, but she hesitates to open it. What if this is all in her head?  But when she finally opens the envelope, she discovers the horrible truth… Stacy looks at the envelope. She had to wait by the door for this morning’s mail to get it without her father’s knowledge. If her father had noticed the envelope, he would have immediately thrown it in the fireplace. He had demanded that she would stop snooping around in his family history, but there had to be a reason why he was so distant and cold toward her. Her mother was no help, so she needed to figure this out independently. And she was about to find out if it was all worth it. She carefully opens the envelope and lays the papers on her bed. This is the moment she had been waiting for. But then she spots something she didn’t even dare to think about. But what was the reason why her father never liked her? And what will Stacy find in the envelope? The Malter family had always wanted a little girl. So when Marie Malther got pregnant, she and her husband, Fred Malter, were ecstatic to find out their prayers had been answered. They already had three sons; Walter, George, and Victor. And now they finally had a daughter, Stacy. She completed the family.  All the siblings have different characters. Walter is the oldest. He is the most rebellious. Then comes George. He is very loud and loves learning new things. Victor is the youngest son. He loves sports. But there is one thing that they all have in common. All the boys love playing music. Stacy’s mother plays in musicals and sings on stage. Her father plays the piano. Stacy loves listening to everyone’s music, but she has no rhythm. She once tried to play the guitar but somehow broke all the strings. Her father got very angry with her. So she has never touched an instrument since then. Stacy is more creative than the others. She can sit in her room and paint for hours. Her parents always wondered where she got it from. Not even her grandparents can paint. Stacy also dressed differently. She discovered her own style and described it as “boohoo hipster.” She wears overalls but also baggy jeans and stacks necklaces, and rings. Her parents had tried to dress Stacy for as long as she had let them, but she was strong-minded. Her brothers didn’t mind getting dressed by their parents, at least not for school. But when they have a concert, they dress like rock stars. And no one can tell them otherwise. Fred Malter has a special connection with his sons. He always imagined that the bond between him and his daughter would be the same, but it isn’t. He doesn’t do much about it, either. Fred is a melancholy man, and sometimes it feels like he doesn’t really care about Stacy. Her mother, on the other hand, is a very loving woman. She has always favored her only daughter, sometimes a little too obviously. It’s one of the reasons why Walter picks on his sister. He calls her “mama’s girl” or “mama’s baby.” But Stacy only sees this as an act of jealousy. Stacy’s appearance isn’t any different from her family members; from her looks, it was obvious she was one of Malter’s children. But as much as her look was similar to her family’s, she always felt different inwardly. Stacy tried not to bother about her odd inward feeling while growing up, but the older she got, the more curious she became. Out of curiosity, one day, Stacy asked her mother if there was a family tree she could look at. She hoped that by checking it, she would find some of the things that were different about her in some of her distant family and, by that, justify why she felt different. Sadly, Marie, her mother, couldn’t answer. Instead, she stated that Fred had always been secretive about his family. Marie’s response felt strange to Stacy. Rather than take no for an answer, Stacy took matters into her own hands. She found her way to a library to make some findings. She believed there was possibly something helpful she could find about the Malter name at the place.  She wouldn’t have gone out of her way to make some findings at the library but for her father, who she heard had been secretive about his family. Stacy’s realization of that truth ignited more curiosity in her. She took the pain to visit the library for three straight days, searching for old newspapers and books about their village. Unfortunately, as much as she searched, she found nothing. Luckily for Stacy, she found something strange when she wasn’t actively looking for one. As much as she couldn’t wait to ask her father about it, she feared he would be very angry. Of all the things Stacy didn’t like about Fred, it was getting to be around him when he was upset. After thinking about the worst thing that her meeting with Fred could bring, Stacy decided to go against her fears and confront him about what she found. One fateful evening, she decided to meet her father in his study; with her heart racing, she knocked on the door, and almost immediately, Fred asked that the person come in.  The low voice with which Fred responded calmed her down a bit. Immediately, she took a breath and opened the door. As Stacy entered the room, she felt a gloomy ambiance there but gave not much thought to the nature of the room. Sitting at his desk, Fred called her name and asked her what she wanted.  From the way Fred called her name, it was as if he was disgusted at mentioning her name. By Fred’s expression, Stacy felts the confidence she had taken much time to gather slip away. With a shaky voice, she responded that she had a question to ask him. Without looking him in the eyes, she tried to mutter the question, “can you tell me something about your family?” At her question, Fred stopped writing and began to look at Stacy. It was a crazy moment for Stacy as everything went silent for seconds. After this, he stood up from his desk, walked toward her, and stopped right in front of her. Fred was standing so close to her that she could feel his breath on her face.  He confronted her and asked her what gut she had to be asking him something so personal. This statement gave Stacy some cold shiver, and she began to fear her coming into his room was a big mistake. Immediately, she apologized to her father and turned quickly to walk away. Suddenly, he grabbed her arm and yanked her back, telling her in a cold and low voice never to ask him anything like that again. Also, he added that she should never disturb him when he is in his study. All the while, Fred was trying to keep calm as he didn’t like to yell or let his emotions get the best of him. This particular trait makes him more intimidating. Stacy tried to fight her tears as she walked out of the door, but as soon she got into her room, she began to cry. She didn’t just cry because of her father’s reaction but because she felt defeated by what happened. She wondered how she would find out the truth about herself. Based on her recent meeting with her father, she was ready to give up the search, but all of a sudden, she remembered something; it was the attic. The attic was a room no one ever entered because there was a lock on the door. At the remembrance of the attic, she began to wonder why it was locked. The curiosity to know what the room was about brought her new energy. She jumped from her bed to strategize how to satisfy her curiosity. But as she remembered that her father was aware that she was digging into his family history, she became calm. At the thought of her father, she knew she needed to be extra careful with everything, as one careless mistake could make her effort be in vain. As a result, she decided to wait until evening to do the search. She hoped to find something tangible from the search. She decided to wait until the evening before getting into the attic because she knew that her father always fell asleep after dinner. So, she felt that was the perfect time to scoop around. Just as she had speculated, Fred dozed off in front of the TV that fateful evening, and without hesitation, she got to work. Stacy tiptoed to the attic hatch and looked up. There was a big padlock there. She couldn’t remember it being there before, but maybe she had just never noticed. Then again, her father may have put it there more recently since she’d been asking questions. Either way, Stacy had to get past the lock.  There were two ways to get into the attic. Stacy could either go looking for the key, or she could try and pick the lock. Getting the key would be easier, but that meant going into her father’s study. That was far more terrifying to her, so picking the lock it would be, but she didn’t know how.  She had seen people picking locks on TV with two hairpins, and she wondered if it could actually work. Looking up a video, she watched them pick the lock and memorized every movement. Then she grabbed a ladder and climbed up to the padlock on the ceiling. It was time to test the theory.  She followed every move, and to her surprise, it opened, but the lock fell and hit the floor loudly. She could hear footsteps heading toward her. Stacy hurried down the ladder, but there was no time to hide it. She was about to get caught! But then the footsteps stop. Was she going to get away with this?  The footsteps started going away, and Stacy let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. She hurried back up the ladder, opened the hatch, and crawled into the attic. Carefully, with her foot, she maneuvered the ladder to lean against the wall and closed the hatch door. Hopefully, no one would think to check for her here.  It’s colder in here, and she crawls around, looking for a light switch. She’s trying to be as quiet as possible. With the light on, she sees lots of boxes and locked chests. This is so weird. She opened a few boxes and started looking around. But she can’t find anything that’s about her. That’s when she spotted it! Stacy crawled quietly across the attic to a suitcase with her name on it. It was locked. That was strange. She had taken the hairpins with her and now used them again to open this box. To her surprise, it was full of papers and pictures, but they were of her! Why would her father hide these? She pulled out baby photos and school photos, most of which she had never seen before. In fact, she can’t remember them being taken. She had been so young in most of these pictures. She needed answers. Surely, her mother had to know about these. Why would she agree to hide them?  Or maybe her mother didn’t know, and her dad had hidden them from everyone. But why? Wouldn’t these pictures be great on the fridge or the wall? And these papers looked important. So why hide them all? But there was more in the box. What was it?  There’s a red binder at the bottom of the box. Stacy opened it and started reading. But none of it makes sense. The binder is full of people’s names. It seemed to be some records from someplace. Maybe a hospital or a doctor’s office? Stacy couldn’t tell. What was all this? She kept looking through the binder, looking for her name, but it wasn’t there. Why would they have random records of other people but not Stacy? And in Stacy’s box? This made no sense and kept bringing up more and more questions. She would have to face her father about this. But that was terrifying.  Sure that she had found everything important, she grabbed the box and the binder and hurried back to her room. She locked the hatch back up and put the ladder away. She couldn’t believe she’d gotten away with it. Not even her brothers had found her. But now she had to start asking some questions.  She laid out the pictures and scanned through the binder for a second time. Stacy knew she was missing something. She needed answers, but should she ask her mom or her father? Asking her father was too scary to think about, so she decided to ask her mom. After all, her mom wouldn’t get too mad, right?  Stacy faced her fear and called for her mom to come to her room. She came into Stacy’s room and saw the mess that Stacy had made. She was about to tell Stacy off for the mess, but then she noticed just what the mess was, and that’s when she and Stacy both realized something.  Stacy’s mom had no idea what was going on either. She had never seen these photos and had no idea what the binder was for. They were both confused. Stacy’s mom wanted to tell her husband right away, but Stacy convinced her to keep it a secret until she had more answers.  Stacy, having no more options, decided to get a DNA test. Not just one test, but one for everyone in the family. She would have to get samples from each of her brothers and her parents. This would prove harder than she thought. After all, how was she supposed to get one from her father? Stacy’s mother agreed to take the DNA test, and after some persuasion, her brothers agreed too, but her father was not about to agree to a test, so Stacy had to wait until he was asleep. She knew that this was beyond risky. She would have to swab his mouth with the cotton swab, and that was sure to wake him up.  To Stacy’s surprise, he slept through it. She had managed to get the DNA without waking him up, and she could finally send the tests back to the lab. It would take a couple of weeks to get the results but as it would turn out, it would well be worth the wait. Stacy was nervous about the results but wanted them more than anything.  Finally, the day came! Her questions would be answered. Stacy waited by the door for the mailman to come. She needs to get to the mail before her father can. He can’t know what’s going on. After all, if he found out, he’d throw it all into the fireplace before she could get her answers.  Soon the mailman comes, and she takes the mail, hiding the envelope under her dress. This is difficult as it is a large envelope. She puts the rest of the mail on the kitchen counter and runs up to her room. She’s scared but excited at the same time. This is what she’s been waiting for.  She’s shaky as she holds the envelope. It’s heavy because all six of their results came at once. She opened it and laid the papers out on her bed, starting with her mother. She read and read until she got to her own results. What would they say? Her brothers and her parents are most definitely related. At this rate, Stacy is starting to doubt herself. Maybe all of this was just for nothing. But then she read her own results. She was in shock and couldn’t believe what she was reading. She knew now the terrible secret.  Stacy had expected her father to not really be her father. It made sense. All the detachment and hatred were clear. But the results said that her mother wasn’t her real mother. She was distraught. How could her mom not be her mom? She ran downstairs with the papers in her hands and cried out for answers.  She yelled at her parents for an explanation, but her mother had no clue what was going on. She was just as confused. She tried to get Stacy to calm down, but she wouldn’t calm down. Stacy needed answers, and she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. That’s when her father stood up.  He explained how Stacy had been switched at birth. He’d known about it from the beginning, but by the time he had tried to get his own baby, it was too late. He never said anything because Stacy had such a connection with her mom. Stacy found her birth parents’ names in the binder. They were reunited, and Stacy left, but she always stayed in touch with her mom. That bond would never end.