Searching for Sylvie Lee

by Jean Kwok

When I was living with Helena and Willem in their cold house, I longed for my own ma and pa, whom I had never met, parents who would love and accept me as I was. Then, when I was finally allowed to return to my real parents—They only need a child minder for their new daughter, Helena had told me—I

How I could not bear to have one foot in both countries. How I had become aware of Helena’s underlying hatred of me once I grew older. How my love for him and Grandma had not been enough to overcome my fear of Helena. And my complicated, twisted relationship with Willem had not helped matters.

I learned that there were people who knew of no other existence than their own, a path cushioned by wealth and breeding from birth onward.