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Chapter 68. Girl gone wild

Penulis: jengreyy
last update Terakhir Diperbarui: 2025-05-21 09:50:58

* Penny *

The first few weeks in the U.S. were a blur of newness. New school. New apartment. New people. New expectations.

Darren and his wife, Lena, had done everything they could to make the transition easier. Lena even decorated my room in the apartment with soft pastels and string lights, trying to mimic Magnolia Manor's warmth. Darren cleared his schedule to drive me around campus before classes started and made a point to have dinner with me every night, even when he was bone-tired.

They meant well. God, they really did. But no amount of kindness could fill the ache I carried like a shadow. I smiled at the right moments. Said thank you. Laughed when I was supposed to. But inside, it was like someone had pulled the plug, and all the color had drained from me.

I missed everything. The scent of Jullie's garden. Lawrence's clingy hugs. Mark's terrible pranks. My big brother Lance's quiet, unreadable presence in the corner of a room. The way the sea could muffle everything when the w
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