Chapter 84

Twenty years ago

“Lucas, this is my younger sister, Jenny. I call her Jen!” Charlotte said cheerfully as she introduced the two. Jen barely acknowledged him. She ran back to her dolls, sitting alone under the tamarind tree outside their home. Charlotte and Lucas had already been friends for two years, and they had grown quite fond of each other. Jen had always preferred her solitude over their companionship.

“Does she hate me?” Lucas asked. Charlotte broke out in laughter, her voice swallowed when she tried to speak.

“Are you really asking me if a child hates you?”

Lucas scratched the back of his head, realizing the foolishness in his question as his eyes remained on Jenny.

“I don’t know. Children can be brutally honest, you know. She must have sniffed something on me that made her despise me from the beginning. Should I go ask her?” Lucas added. Charlotte was teaching herself how to knit with leftover yarn given to her by Aunt May. Unlike her sister, Charlotte had quickly warmed up t