CHAPTER 168: MONKEY BARS

SERAPHINA’S POV

I reach out and knock three times on the familiar door that has been my home for the majority of my life, pulling away and nervously tucking my hands back into my pockets.

Everything at the orphanage remains almost as it always was; the shape and size of it, the smell of wet sand, the never-ceasing breeze, the rustling of the willow trees around.

I do notice some subtle changes, like the tiled roads leading up to the building, which used to be a muddy path dotted with puddles where children would play during rainy days.

There’s the entirely new roof, replacing the old one we kept patching up with leftover wood from the furniture shops down the road, and the newly planted flower beds surrounding the house.

It’s home, but a newly improved version of the home I grew up in.

I’m grateful for these changes, more so knowing the smile they must have put on Miss Lucy’s face as she watched them come together, easing years of worry about the house falling apart or flooding.

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