CHAPTER ELEVEN
Walking through the hallways of the family mansion, I seemed to relive all of my childhood memories at once. The main foyer—with its gold-lined railing, marble stairs leading up to the second floor, and massive painting of Derek House, the founder of the House family, staring down at us all with a disapproving scowl on his face—alone sparked many fond memories of my childhood. When Dad led me up the front steps to the second floor, for example, I noticed the dent in the railing I made when I was six and accidentally ran into the stairs’ railing when I wasn’t looking. I cried for hours due to how much it hurt.
Or that vase in the very center of the foyer filled with bluebonnets, roses, and various other flowers I didn’t recognize. One time, when Clarissa and I were playing
