#Chapter 253: Moving Day

Audrey Joseph clung to Eliza’s arm like a lifeline as we climbed out of the car. Eliza gently stroked his hair, and he leaned into her touch with an innocent expression in his wide brown eyes. He had taken to her quickly, as if he were a lost duckling imprinting on a stray cat. “Would you like to come live with me here?” Eliza asked, crouching to Joseph’s level and gesturing to the house behind her. “There’s a nice big yard in the back, and you can have your very own room. We’ll have lots of fun together.” Joseph blinked up at her first, then to the house, before he nodded vigorously. He pressed himself even closer to Eliza’s side, clearly overjoyed at the thought of a new home that wasn’t an orphanage, some kind of terrifying factory, or our cramped apartment. “Well, I guess that settles it,” Edwin said with a soft chuckle. With that, we walked up the front path to the house. Eliza’s home was a beautiful old Victorian-style house that she had purcha