When I stepped through the door, everyone’s eyes fixed on me.
Emily lay pale and weak on the sofa, barely breathing.
“Sis, you’re back. I came downstairs just to greet you…”
The bandage on her wrist was soaked with crimson, making her look fragile and pitiful.
Robert snorted coldly.
“For your mother’s sake, I’ll let you stay. But from now on, don’t go near Emily.”
Daniel threw the shredded rag doll at my feet, sneering:
“If you bully Emily again, this doll is what’ll happen to you.”
I put down the bag of medicine and picked the doll up with aching care.
It had been sewn for me by an elderly woman at the shelter, using scraps of clean cloth.
As a child, I had envied girls who owned Barbie dolls. I never had one.
So she made me a doll of my own.
Through seven years of wandering, it was my only companion.
Now, she was dead, and the doll was torn apart.
The only person who had ever truly loved me was gone.
The only companion I had left was gone too.
Pain clenched my chest and I doubled over coughing again.
Daniel frowned, a flicker of impatience in his eyes.
“Can you stop pretending already? Fine, I’ll buy you a new one.”
Not the same. How could it ever be the same?