The next afternoon, once Detective Law had made a phone call dispatching someone to Honghua on her behalf, Jubilee returned to the orphanage to collect her things. She snuck straight to her old room to pack first. It’d cause less commotion if she said goodbye to the kids last.

Cracking open the door, she entered a narrow space wide enough for only a twin bed beneath a paned window and a corner closet. She went first to the bed, lifting the blanket’s edge, and pulled her suitcase out from beneath the mattress. Dust bunnies flurried, and she sneezed.

A little voice down the hallway gasped. Then, there was a stampede of tiny footsteps.

“Zhuli Ai-yi!” Kailin’s head popped around the doorframe, along with several other small faces. “You’re back!”

Jubilee kicked her suitcase back under the bed, throwing the thin yellow blanket into place as a handful of children spilled into the room.

“What’s this?” one child asked, spying the plastic shopping bags Jubilee had left by the door. “Oo! Tangerines and red bean cakes!”

Jubilee strode over to lift the bag out of reach, even as tiny hands continued to grab for it. “Ah-ah, these are for Director—er, Huang Ai-yi.” From what she vaguely remembered, the treats seemed like the sort of thing her parents’ friends used to bring over whenever they made house visits. She hoped the gift would act as a peace offering, and maybe ease the door open for her eventual return.

One older girl peered at her suspiciously. “Huang Ai-yi said you weren’t coming back.”

“And that there was a policeman—” a boy began excitedly.

“But, as you can see, I’m here!” Jubilee interjected, shoving one of the other bags at the children crowding the tiny space. Time to deflect. “These are for you guys.”

“Candy!” they squealed, falling upon the bag.

That should buy her some time. Quickly, she got out her suitcase and moved it by the closet, swinging open the door to block herself from the kids’ view. Hopefully, they wouldn’t catch on to what she was doing just yet.

You know, Hellenos said from where he leaned against the door, They’re small. Not stupid.

Jubilee ignored him, focusing on stuffing what was left of her life into the suitcase. There wasn’t much—just basic clothes, some unused sneakers, a brand new and barely touched Bible. She’d donated almost all her other loot before leaving the states. Yanking open a shelf drawer, she stopped short upon seeing a wallet-sized photograph. Slowly, she picked it up and stared at it.

“Who are those people?” Kailin’s voice piped up from Jubilee’s elbow.

She started. “My family,” she answered, throat dry.

“That little girl looks like me.” Kailin pointed at the two-year-old Jenny in the picture, whose hair was in pigtails like Kailin’s. Her finger shifted to a twelve-year-old Jubilee next. “Is that you?” At Jubilee’s nod, Kailin continued, “You look really happy. You must have nice parents.”

Jubilee’s shoulders stiffened. It wasn’t an illogical thing to surmise—the four smiling faces looked uncharacteristically at ease and, for once, genuinely happy to be together. But it wasn’t a statement she could wholly agree with, and this photo—the only one of her parents she’d kept—was a reminder of what might’ve been, but now never could be. She said nothing.

A few other children had run over to look, their movements pushing the closet door into her so that she stumbled out from it and into view. “What’s that?” a boy asked, hanging his weight upon the drawer to point at something shiny inside.

“Pretty!” another girl cried, snatching out a diamond ring. Alyssa’s.

Jubilee instinctively snatched the ring back, throwing both it and the photograph into the bottom of her suitcase.

“Is that your ring, Ai-yi?” the girl asked, undeterred, and knelt to fish curiously through Jubilee’s clothes.

“No.” Jubilee’s voice was hard, and she zipped her suitcase shut. “It’s my...my friend’s.” She side-eyed Hellenos. Her view of him was dim.

“Then why do you have it?”

She stiffened. “I—borrowed it.” Faintly, she sensed a line above her cracking.

Kailin cocked her head at the suitcase then. “Why are you packing, Ai-yi?” she asked slowly.

Jubilee winced. No use hiding it any longer. Turning from the closet, she knelt to be at eye level with the children. “Kids...listen up. Ai-yi has to leave for a little while.“

The children’s expressions sobered. Then, the onslaught of questions came.

“Leave?! Why?”

“Where are you going?”

“For how long?”

She stood. “Not forever,” she promised, choosing to ignore all but the last inquiry. “I’ll come back as soon as I can.” Hopefully. Ushering the children back towards the bags of gifts, she snatched one up. It was time to bring out the big guns. “Look, I bought you toys, too!” Dumping out a stream of stuffed animals, she silently prayed that it would distract them from asking any further questions. Or crying.

A few kids reached for the toys, but Kailin looked sullen. “Why can’t you stay?” she demanded.

The dreaded W word again. Jubilee looked at her helplessly. “Well, it’s…” Classified wasn’t a word Jubilee knew in Mandarin, but even if it was, she couldn’t use it. “It’s...complicated, bao bei. But I’ll be back as soon as...as soon as I’m…done with some things.”

Kailin put her arms on her hips. “What things? When will you be done?”

Jubilee hesitated. “Good things,” she said at last. That was true, wasn’t it? With more certainty, she added, “To help other people. It might take...I don’t know, a few months.”

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Kailin’s lip started to quiver. “That’s forever!” she wailed.

“It isn’t,” Jubilee assured hastily, grabbing the biggest teddy bear from the pile and pushing it into Kailin’s arms. “Bao bei, look how soft Little Brother Bear is! Isn’t he cute? Can you take care of him for me until I come back?”

Kailin instinctively wrapped her arms around the bear even as she stamped her foot. “I can’t!” she wailed louder. “If you take that long to come back, Little Brother Bear will grow old and die!”

Jubilee might’ve laughed at this absurd logic if not for her panic over the effect Kailin was having on the others. They’d stopped picking through the toys and were looking anxiously from Jubilee to Kailin, whose eyes were welling up. Tears finally burst from her.

“Don’t go, Zhuli Ai-yi!” she blubbered. “Don’t leave us!”

And just like that, all of the children—like a herd of coyotes responding to a single one’s call—began to cry. Their wails echoed out the open door and down the corridor.

Oh no. “Please, don’t cry,” she implored the children in vain. Desperate, she turned to Hellenos, but he had grown so faint that she could barely see him.

“What’s going on here?” Director Huang’s voice cut through the small room like a knife.

Jubilee jumped. “Director,” she said weakly, turning to the woman outside the door. “I—er—got you something.” Awkwardly, she held out the tangerines and red bean cakes as the children continued to sob loudly around her, surrounded by a pile of candy and toys on the floor.

The matron gave Jubilee a look that made her want to melt into the floor. Then, to the children, the older woman said, “Time to play outside, little ones. Off you go.” She gestured to a petite caretaker behind her, who squeezed into the room and ushered the children out. Kailin, after much resistance, went with them, still crying.

The room finally clear, Director Huang stepped inside and closed the door. “I thought I told you not to come back here, Wong Xiao-jie,” she said harshly.

Jubilee gaped. “I came to move my things out. I—I thought you were told—”

“I wasn’t told anything,” the other woman snapped. “Get your things and get out. I don’t want to see you near the children again.”

“But—the police! They were supposed to have—”

“The police are exactly who I will call if you are not gone in one minute.” With that, Director Huang swung open the door and waited for her to leave.

Jubilee’s hands tightened around the fruit and cake as she forced down tears. She’d never handled getting yelled at well. But crying would just make her look guilty, and for once, she wasn’t doing anything wrong. In fact, this was all happening because she’d chosen to actually do something good—to help that girl, Zhengyi Yang—without the ulterior motive of trying to hide or run away, for a change. Was losing her ties to the orphanage the price to pay for following through on that? Fighting to keep her composure, Jubilee shoved the snacks back in the bag, grabbed her suitcase, and left.

As she exited the building, she saw Kailin’s face peering out at her from the fenced playground. Jubilee paused and lifted a hand to wave goodbye. An adult pulled the little girl away before she could.

Jubilee’s heart wrenched. She turned aside sadly and flagged down a cab.

On the ride to her new apartment, she finally let herself cry.

How could this have happened? She’d watched Detective Law make the call to Officer Chang, requesting him to go and clear her name at the orphanage today. The policeman must’ve not gotten to it yet. That was just her luck. She hated this feeling like she was in trouble, like she’d done something wrong again. Why had she been brought to the orphanage in the first place if her time there was just going to end like this? She thought she’d had a purpose at Honghua, after the way things had so providentially fallen into place in the U.S. to lead her there.

Briefly, the memory of a middle-aged woman’s face, framed by curly brown hair and soft, otherworldly light—the face Jubilee had awoken to at the scene of her car crash—flitted through her mind. Mary. It was Mary who, after befriending Jubilee and supporting her through many months of recovery and rehabilitation, had persuaded her pastor husband to use his connections and give Jubilee a glowing referral to Honghua when she’d asked for it. The two of them had even paid for her plane ticket to China.

And then Jubilee had gone and blown it. She’d lost her position at the orphanage, been blacklisted as a delinquent by Director Huang, and left Kailin and the other kids feeling abandoned. What would Mary think? To add insult to injury, the cab was currently taking Jubilee deeper and deeper into the smoggiest and most chaotic part of the city, where she’d have to live from now on.

Her sadness slowly turned to fury. This was all that detective’s fault. If not for him, she might still have a comfortable job, in a comfortable location on the outskirts of the city, surrounded by children who loved her and didn’t make her feel judged like everyone else did. But there was no way to go back to that, and it was all because of Graeson Law. So how was she supposed to just let that go and move on?

Yet there really was no other option, was there? She couldn’t go back to Honghua, and there was nothing she could do about what everyone there thought of her. Loathe though she was to admit it, Kailin would also be fine—unlike that Zhengyi girl if someone didn’t help her. And if Jubilee didn’t, then who would? Working on the case was the best way to learn more about the girl and figure out how to free her. Wasn’t that the reason and maybe even purpose for Jubilee’s spiritual sight?

As the cab pulled up to a curb, she scrubbed her eyes dry with a sigh. The fact was that she couldn’t help Kailin anymore, but she could help that other girl, who probably needed it a whole lot more. Maybe that was why all this had happened—because it was time to put her gift to work. And that’s what Mary would want, Jubilee decided as she paid the cab fare. Perhaps her time at the orphanage was even meant to prepare her for this somehow. No matter what Director Huang and the others thought of her, it was time to focus on the new task at hand and start doing things right.

With that decision, Hellenos flickered back into view. Jubilee nearly collided with him as she exited the vehicle.

About time you came back, she thought, sidestepping him to grab her suitcase from the trunk.

I could say the same, Hellenos quipped as the cab drove off.

Jubilee took a deep breath to tell him how she didn’t appreciate his waxing and waning based on her emotions, but fell into a coughing fit instead. The smog really was insufferable here. Talk about a major downgrade in location. Sighing, she turned to face her new home...and gaped.

It wasn’t the dingy, cramped apartment complex she was expecting—it was a skyscraper of condos. A shiny, new-ish-looking skyscraper that took up the whole block. What in the world? She’d get to live...here?

Surprise, Hellenos said.

“Hello!” another voice said, also in English. ”You must be Julie Wong.”

Startled, she turned to see an elderly Caucasian man. He was dressed in a white button-down shirt with a simple tie and slacks, his white hair casually but neatly combed. Around him radiated a gentle glow, not unlike Mary’s. He smiled at Jubilee.

She stared. “How did you—who are you?”

The man gave a slight bow. “Wayne Quell, Law’s personal assistant. He showed me your photo so that I’d be prepared to receive you.”

Jubilee continued to stare, flummoxed. Personal assistant?

The older man continued, “Law asked me to help you get moved in and make sure that you are as comfortable as possible before your first day of work.” Reaching out, he gently took the suitcase from her hands. “Do you have any additional luggage?” he asked kindly.

Self-conscious, she shook her head.

His smile was warm. “No need to worry. Your apartment is already fully furnished. I picked out some of the decor myself, in fact. Now, if you’ll come with me...” He turned, motioning her to follow. Jubilee complied, following him through a set of revolving doors into the building.

Her feet stepped onto a thick, plush carpet, and she froze in her tracks. A large, lavish lobby spread before her. In the center, a faux courtyard with a marble water fountain glittered, lit up by a brilliant crystal chandelier hanging from high above. Hellenos gave a low whistle beside her.

“Miss Wong?” Wayne’s voice jolted her back to attention. He pressed a business card and a plastic card into her hands. “My card, in case you ever need anything—I live close by—and your key card. Your room is the penthouse on the top floor.” At her stunned expression, his eyes twinkled. “Fortunately, the elevator is quite fast. Shall we?” He led the way to the elevators. Jubilee gave the lobby one last look before trailing after him, dazed.

Maybe this job wouldn’t be so bad after all.