His words were comforting—logical, even. Veronica wanted to believe him. Perhaps she was simply overthinking it, searching for problems where none existed. After all, Esther was theirs now. And wasn’t she supposed to be everything they had dreamed of?
For a while, the doubt subsided, and life regained its joyful rhythm. But soon, subtle oddities began to surface. Esther’s uncanny ability to follow adult conversations with unsettling precision unnerved Veronica.