Chapter 61. I Know the Place

[Elise’s POV]

Jose’s words drift around me while I continue to stare at the building in front of me. With each passing minute, it becomes more and more familiar, and I can’t deny that I actually know this place.

Shivering, I try to make sense of why this is happening. Everything was just as I remembered it from the dock that sat just behind it and the calm sea. Even the seabirds that fly high in the blue sky are exactly as I remember them.

“Why?” I whisper, unable to believe it. “Why is this the place?”

As the words leave my lips, I feel myself drifting back to reality, and when the world comes into focus, I realize that tears are streaming down my face.

“What’s wrong?” Jose asks, reaching out to brush one from my cheek but stopping as I let a growl escape me. “Did something happen?”

“That place,” I say slowly, feeling my hatred for my parents rise once again. “That’s the fucking orphanage I was in.”

It was made to look like the perfe