Chapter 10: I worry because I care

She wanted to enjoy a father's love too like Sisi.

She wanted to have grand parents and grand relatives, uncle’s and aunts and nieces and nephews that came over for Christmas and thanksgiving like Selena. If possible, she wanted to have little siblings too like Keisha.

She would ask her mother when she returned. She would find out why they always lived alone and what secrets her mother guarded so carefully and then she would unravel them ,one after the other.

She would find her family.

*

Her mother stared at her in shock. Her mouth hung open, her bag that she had wanted to place on the kitchen counter hung in mid air and her lashes batted repeatedly over her eyes that seemed like it would pop out any moment.

Emotions flitted quickly across her mother’s eyes. There was worry, pain, regret and another emotion that got Joan curious, fear. Why would her mother be afraid?

“Mum?” she called and Mrs. Michaels snapped back to reality, her expression becoming masked. She shut her mouth