Chapter 97

Ollie POV

“Really?” I asked, my eyes going wide. “You’d do that?”

“Of course,” Papa said. “These are important. Your first paintings in your new home with your new family. They should be displayed properly.”

My new home. My new family. Those words still felt big and strange, but also kind of nice. Like maybe they could be real, not just pretend.

“Can we eat now?” I asked, because my tummy was rumbling again even though I’d had pancakes for breakfast. “I’m hungry again.”

Mama laughed, and it was a real laugh this time, not a scared one or a sad one. “Of course we can eat. Growing boys are always hungry.”

Grandma Elena had already started making plates for Mama and Papa—pancakes and eggs and bacon and fruit. She put them on the kitchen island, and Papa lifted me up onto one of the tall chairs while Mama sat beside me.

We ate together, the three of us, while the family moved around us doing family things. The other kids kept painting, an