I felt so terrible. I wanted to comfort her, but Elena quickly turned around and threw herself into Anna’s arms.
“Debra, it’s time to go. What’re you looking at?”
Caleb’s voice pulled me back to reality.
“Nothing. Let’s go.” I had no choice but to leave so that he wouldn’t suspect me.
𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.𝘤𝘰𝘮
We took Luca straight home. Adam’s wife received us enthusiastically. She had cooked a delicious spread of dishes and wanted to invite us for dinner. While she was thanking Caleb, I quietly slipped away and left.
I hailed a taxi and headed straight to Anna’s house.
“Elena has been hiding in her room since she came back from school. She refuses to come out,” Anna said with concern.
Judging from the look on Elena’s face earlier at the kindergarten, she was obviously very hurt. Overwhelmed with guilt, I hurried in to comfort her.
“Elena, I’m so sorry,” I apologized immediately.
Hiding from me underneath the covers, Elena asked sulkily, “Mommy, why didn’t you talk to me at school?”
Her voice was a bit hoarse. It was obvious that she had cried very hard just now.
“I’m so sorry, baby.” My heart sank. I felt terrible. “At the kindergarten, I was working, and my business partner was there with me. If I talked to you, my boss would’ve gotten very angry at me. If my boss got angry at me, we wouldn’t be able to go home. Elena, honey, can you forgive me?”
After a short silence, Elena poked her head out from under the cover. “Mommy…”
‘lena, can you forgive me?”
“Of course I forgive you! I thought that you didn’t Love me anymore.” Now that I had made things clear to her, Elena sounded relieved. She climbed out of bed and reached out to hug me.
While we hugged, Elena suddenly said, “Mommy, I just remembered something.”
Then she turned around and took out a photo from her schoolbag on the table. “Look! I’ve found my brother. Can you take him home?”
Her brother?
Why was she still thinking about him? I had always thought that this was just an excuse for her to come with me to Roz Town.
Confused, I took the photo from her hand and glanced at it.
The next second, my eyes went as wide as saucers.
It was a photo of Caleb and a young boy!
