Lead

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It took a while for Zoe to grasp what Aunt Julie was saying.

Xavier and Aunt Julie waited patiently, albeit a little anxiously, for Zoe to react.

"What's in it?" Zoe finally asked in a whisper. It was as if she was scared that if she spoke louder the ghost of her mother would come and stand in front of her.

It had been so long since Zoe saw a photo of her mother that she had lost her face in her memories. Even the memories were fading with time.

After her mother's death, her father had made sure that nothing remained that would remind them of her.

Zoe couldn't remember ever talking to her Dad about her mother or her death. She didn't even remember how her mother had died.

"Her trauma is suppressing the memories," a doctor had said to her father when he had taken her to see one after her mother's death.

"I have no idea. Your mother locked it up before you got to this house." Aunt Julie answered in the same tone, understanding how fragile Zoe might be feeling.

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