Chapter 1:
14 April 2017
It had been the kind of year that left a mark. For eight-year-old Pauline Anouk Lenoir, everything had changed ten months earlier - in one brutal instant. Her parents, Marthe and Emiel, never made it home. One moment they were joyfully preparing for the birth of Pauline's little sibling, the happiest she could remember them being, and the next, they were gone - taken by a senseless accident. Her little sibling would never be – dead before ever seeing the light of day.
The weeks that followed blurred into a fog. Pauline, numb with shock, had moved through a hectic time - funeral ceremonies and packing suitcases - without fully comprehending it all. She barely remembered boarding the train that took her from Brussels to London, to live with her grandmother Hélène in a quiet countryside town outside the capital. Hélène, once sharp and independent, was now aging and forgetful, her days marked by confusion and the slow erosion of memory.
That situation hadn't lasted long - Hélène struggled to care for a child. Within three months, Pauline was moved to a care home, and then again - this time farther away from her grandmother, to a new place in a different county. To Pauline's dismay, it was too far away from Hélène to visit easily.
So now she was alone – Pauline's parents had had no siblings that could have taken care of her. Her father's parents had died before her birth. Marthe's father Clemens had passed away when Pauline was five.
Still, Pauline was resilient beyond her years. She clung to books as a lifeline. The library was her escape from reality, each book a new world to discover. School, by contrast, felt rather dull and slow - though the first months had meant an adjustment to classes being taught in English instead of French, she was now fluent enough in English to breeze through her lessons again.
After school that day, Pauline hurried up the stairs to her room in the care home, eager to finish her book. She shared it with Scarlett, an eleven-year-old girl, confident and sometimes - unexpectedly - timid. But when she opened the door, it wasn't Scarlett sitting on the bed.
A girl with dark brown curls, who seemed to be about her age, jumped in surprise. Pauline, momentarily startled, said - perhaps a bit sharply -, "Who are you?"
"Hey! You scared me!" the girl shot back, narrowing her eyes.
Pauline blinked. "Sorry... I just wasn't expecting someone else."
The girl stood up. "I'm Holly Knight. You must be Pauline."
Pauline nodded slowly, still confused. "Yeah... What are you doing here?"
"I'm your new roommate. Scarlett's going back to her family tonight. She just went downstairs for something."
"Oh," Pauline said, processing the news. "Nice to meet you, Holly."
"You too. I didn't know you were French."
"I'm not French, I'm Belgian," Pauline corrected with a small smile.
Before Holly could respond, Scarlett returned. The room filled with chatter - at first a little hesitant, but soon quite natural - as they helped her clean up and prepare for her departure. At last, the time came to say goodbye.