I watched as Stephanie and Laika cried together when they realized they had to say goodbye. Laika kept holding onto Stephanie's hand and cried so loudly that her voice echoed through the villa.
"No! No, Stephanie, I don't want to go!" Tears ran down Laika's cheeks, and her eyes were already swollen from crying too long. "I want to stay with you! Why do you have to leave me?!"
"Laika, I'm not leaving you," Stephanie said gently as she knelt in front of her little sister. "I'll just be gone for a while, maybe six or seven months. After that, I'll come back for you. I promise."
Stephanie had told Laika she needed to leave Velmont because of work, but even a child could feel that something wasn't right because all the adults around her looked tense and worried.
Maybe Laika had seen Stephanie crying at home before and thought that bad people were chasing her.
But unfortunately, there was no way we could explain the real problem to an eight-year-old kid.
