Chapter 316

Valeria shook her head. She had seen it herself—the walls outside her childhood home had been marked for demolishment. Excavators had pushed them down with ease, leveling everything to the ground in a cloud of dust. The tree in the yard had been there as far back as she could remember. It would bloom every year. The excavator had always yanked its roots out, so how could the tree still be here? The house, the yard, and everything else could be rebuilt, but how could the tree have been revived? Even if it was the, it wouldn't be the same tree from her childhood. Still, she walked around the tree and saw the carving on its trunk. She remembered how mischievous she had been as a child and always climbed up the tree. She had used a knife and carved her full name into the bark. There were too many letters, so all she managed to carve was "Ja" in the end. When Philip found out, he had scolded her, telling her that even trees were alive. He chided her and told her she mustn't cut into t