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“Probably in her room,” Johan pipes in.
Heidi sighs. “She didn’t want to come to the kitchen for her snack, so I took a tray to her room.”
“She’s outside,” Angelo says behind me.
I turn to see him standing in the doorframe.
“On the porch,” he says with a tilt of his head in that direction, his tone telling me I better go have a look.
He comes over and wraps his arms gently around me, kissing me full on the mouth. “How are you feeling?”
The boys grin. Étienne nudges Guillaume.
“Great,” I say, my chest expanding with a warm feeling.
Keeping an arm around my shoulders, he leads me down the hallway. “I can’t talk sense into her.”
I stare up at him. “Sophie?”
“She refuses to listen or to talk to me.” He sounds despondent. “I’m out of my depth here, Sabella. Tell me what to do.”
“Let me try.”
He opens the front door and takes my hand to lead me outside. Sophie sits on the top step of the porch with her knees drawn up and her arms resting on them. Next to her, Beatrice and Alison’s heads peek from her open backpack. A few pieces of clothing, a water bottle, and a plastic container with oatmeal cookies are visible.
I lower myself carefully next to her.
She tightens her jaw and fixes her gaze on the sea.
I glance at Angelo who watches us from the door with a shoulder braced on the frame and his ankles crossed, looking both worried and amused.
I turn to Sophie. “It looks as if you’re leaving.”
She crosses her arms and plants them firmly on her knees. “I think I’ll go back to the cave.”
“Why? Aren’t you happy here?”
“You don’t want me anymore,” she says, a frown scrunching up her small face. “You just want to play with Brad and Ben.”
“That’s because I haven’t seen them in a long time. It’s natural that I want to spend time with them. In fact, it’s the first time I met little Ben since he was born. But that doesn’t mean I love you less. It just means that sometimes, you have to share the people you love.”
She kicks at a leaf that the breeze blew onto the step. “You love them more because they’re your family.”
“You’re my family too.” I put an arm around her shoulder. “When Angelo gave you Alison, did you love Beatrice less?”
She ponders the question before admitting sulkily, “No.”
“Then why should I love you less? You’ll always be my special little girl.”
She looks at me. “Really?”
“Really. I’ll always be there for you, and I hope you’ll always be here for me too. It’ll hurt my heart if you leave us to go back to the cave.”
“Why?”
“Because I’ll miss you very much.”
“And you’ll be sad?”
