Chapter 201

Melody hardly slept after Lydia's call. At first light, she drove straight to Green Moon Orphanage. Lydia had already laid everything out. She explained, "When you were brought here, it was during the winter. You only had on a wool sweater, and it was filthy. We had to change your clothes and wash that sweater first." Twenty years ago, kids would arrive here all the time, at any time—some abandoned, and others separated from their families. Lydia remembered that Melody never cried. She was unusually quiet and was caked in dirt, as though she'd rolled in mud. Several other children arrived the same day too, so Lydia had hurried Melody inside and cleaned her up. The sweater was so ruined that it was never washed clean. So, Melody never wore it again. Green Moon Orphanage had a rule—every item found with a child had to be saved in case relatives showed up later on. That was why Lydia stored the clothes. When Andrew took Melody home, Lydia had offered him the box of old clothes, but