The neighbors had always thought that Carla was Mrs. Borah's daughter and those three kids were her grandchildren.
Mrs. Borah tried explaining the situation to them at first, but Carla told her she did not have to. After all, Carla did feel like she was a daughter to her.
They might not be blood-related, but Mrs. Borah was like family to her.
Mrs. Borah was the second closest to her after her own father.
Although she gave birth to the children after her father's demise, Mrs. Borah was still a loved one to her.
Mrs. Borah had always been there since Carla was a child. She never once left her.
She had yet reached the house, but hearing the neighbors talking about Mrs. Borah was enough to bring Carla to tears.
"Don't cry, Mommy, " Venus said, putting her small hands around her mother's face, "Mrs. Borah will be watching over us from heaven."
Carla nodded and planted a kiss on the girl's forehead as they walked into the house.
Everything still looked the same.
There was still a bunch of Alocasia on the table. The goldfish were swimming in the fish tank and Little Dori's cage was still hanging on the balcony, swaying to the waves of wind.
Carla's gaze wandered and stopped at the family photo hung in the living room.
Randy, Josh, and Venus wore their brightest smiles in the photo. Back then, Carla was carefree and Mrs. Borah smiled as if her heart was full.
Little Dori happened to fly over and was caught in the photo too.
Although they were poor back then, they were happy.
The bliss from the photo was enough to put a smile on anyone looking at it.
"Gosh, I looked so fat, " Josh said, laughing at himself, "I was so chubby."
Venus chuckled at the picture. "I looked fatter than you. Look at my short ponytail."
"Mrs. Borah tied it for you, " Carla replied.
A warm smile curved on her lips as she reminisced about the past.
"Mrs. Borah used to comb and tie my hair when I was young. After I got you, she started learning other cute ways of tying girls' hair so she could experiment on you and you really liked it. Do you still remember?"
"Yeah, Mommy, " Venus answered in thrill, "She would try different braids every time."
Carla caressed Venus's head tenderly. "You would always ask for a photo after she tried something new. I think we still have those photos in the album."
"Yes, we do. I always look at them when I come back. Let me go get them."
With that said, Venus got off and went back to her room to fetch the photo album.
"I'll go get my cars and my Ultraman."
Josh ran into his room too.
"I'll go look at my little inventions too, " Randy said.
It was just Zayn, Carla, and a few bodyguards in the vast living room.
Zayn signaled at the men to wait outside.
"I bet it's a lot of work maintaining this place?"
Carla looked at the succulent plants growing on the balcony. They looked exactly the same as when Mrs. Borah left. The other plants were Dunraing in their prime too.
Although they were growing well, Carla knew they were not the same plants.
Those plants would not live for such a long time even if they were well taken care of, especially the fish in the tank.
They might look similar in size and color, but they were not the same fish.
Zayn must have looked for plants and fish that were similar to the old ones.
He must have put in a lot of effort to retain everything as it was.
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