hapter 0583

Julian immediately took another step backwards, adding more space between him and me. We both nervously glanced at Nicholas who mostly seemed confused by his own reaction. He cut off his growl with a sharp grunt.

"Sorry," he said.

"Don't worry," I replied.

"It's my fault," Julian said.

"No," Nicholas quickly corrected. "I don't know what came over me."

"I knew this game was a bad idea," Bridget says, rising from the couch. "I tried to warn everyone, but no one takes me seriously."

I distinctly remembered Bridget championing the idea for charades so much that she took to mostly organizing it herself. Now, suddenly, when something had gone wrong, she didn't want anything to do with the idea?

"We should definitely stop," Bridget continued, "I, for one, am out totally." She looked around at everyone, expecting them to agree.

Maybe she wasn't wrong in this instance. The joyful mood I had been attempting to cultivate seemed utterly at waste now, with only thick tension in the air.

Jessica worried her bottom lip. Veronica looked down at her lap. Julian apologized. Nicholas said, "I'm the one at fault."

Everything really did seem like it was falling apart.

Then Elva raised her head, looking up from her coloring books. She spotted the empty spot between Nicholas and Jessica on the couch.

"Can I be on Nick-lass's team?" she asked.

And just like that, the entire mood shifted. The tension broke and everything brightened. Jessica laughed. Veronica's lips twitched in an almost smile. Julian smiled outright. So did Nicholas.

"Of course you can," Nicholas said. He glanced at me. "If it's okay with your mom."

Elva turned her doe eyes on me. It would have been fine with me anyway, but having her look at me like that would have melted even my coldest moods.

"You can," I told her, and she cheered. Cóntent belongs to NovélDráma. Org

a minute," Bridget said. She placed her hands on her hips.

team, we now have four, compared to your team's three." "My team' she says," Julian scoffed.

to take

we were

her. "Just sit

my child and looking at her that way. Elva was innocent in all this. If Bridget wanted to be mad

me.

forfeited any right to my feelings. I should have stopped caring what she thought long ago. When she

for a long time. It was past time that

Bridget eventually snapped. Then she turned

gone, the fun

that Elva should go next, so she hopped to her feet and rushed to the bowl to pick out her word. I decided to stay with her, while Julian returned to his seat beside Veronica. Neither of them seemed to care that I was technically

by now, I think, was

a word and looked at it. Then she showed it to

try to act out. But Elva

front of her team. I

"Timer!" she called.

down from

ran over to me and hugged me. Tears welled in my eyes at once, but I blinked them back. I dropped down to one knee

called.

then she let me go. Turning, she rushed across the room to Nicholas, where she threw her

moved to the edge of the seat, in time to catch Elva's hug.

"Family," Nicholas said.

her head

Nicholas considered.

asked, slightly taken aback.

to click within Nicholas. An understanding flashed behind his

"Home," he said.

hammered in my chest. How

"You got

so fondly at Elva that I thought I might melt into a puddle right there in the living room. Elva so wanted Nicholas to be her

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