He recognized her at a glance, the woman in the picture was Mom.
Connecting the dots with what his sister had said earlier, the boy's sharp mind suddenly understood.
It seemed that the night Mom wasn't home, she had gone to take care of his sister.
They had already met.
But why hadn't Mom told him and his brother?
"Miss Hope! Miss Hope?"
Aunt Harper's voice interrupted, and Noah quickly snapped back to reality, hurriedly putting on the duck mask and started hopping around in circles with the little girl.
Noah, "Sister, let's agree to meet here in the future, okay?"
Hope, "Sure! But, brother, you can come to play at my house!"
Noah, "No need, my mom is too busy to have time."
Noah, "Also, oh! Meeting here is a secret between us, you can't tell anyone, not even your dad."
Hope, "Ah? Why?"
Noah, "It's just our secret, we can't tell adults, and I won't tell my mom either."