She understood now why Zef had been so well-paid. And why, for six years, no one had dared reopen the 2018 registry.
When Arjeta arrived, Lira had done something unthinkable. She had retrieved the original 2018 log from the digital backup—a parallel system Zef had never known existed. She had printed a new, corrected page. And then, with the steady hand of a calligrapher, she had written: regjistri gjendjes civile 2018
That night, she stayed late. She carried the heavy ledger to her desk and turned to April 13, 2018. The births for Durrës were listed in neat, chronological order—all but one. There was a gap between entry #418 and #419, a suspiciously clean space where a line had been erased before the ink dried. She understood now why Zef had been so well-paid