Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 107352 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107352 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
“I didn’t want to upset him.”
“But not having them up made you sad,” I countered.
“Yeah, but if you were here when he was taking them down… He was so mad.”
“He was,” Darwin whispered.
“At the time,” I stressed to them. “But that was right after she left, wasn’t it?”
They all nodded.
“Okay,” I said, and took a breath. “It’s different now. You should put pictures of her up in your rooms if you want.”
“They’re all in the attic,” Griff apprised me, his voice barely there.
“Well, we’re gonna get them outta there, because in the common areas, the places you all share, everybody’s feelings have to be taken into consideration, and that includes your father’s,” I explained, noting I had their rapt attention. “But in your own space, your own rooms, if you want pictures of your mother in there, then that’s your choice and nobody else’s.”
“Yeah, but—” Griff began.
“Plus, your father already gave you permission,” I reminded them.
“But if Dad comes in, he’ll be upset,” Tatum said sadly.
“First time, maybe. Second time, probably. But by the tenth time, eleventh time, he’s gonna get used to seeing her face again, and it will become normal.”
I knew it was different for Luke. The kids missed their mother—and there were feelings of abandonment wrapped up in there as well, so there was pain and hurt—but it was a whole other deal for their father. He had his own feelings of anger, betrayal, and loss. When his wife left him for another man, she’d turned her back not only on him, but on the children they raised together. He was shouldering that burden all alone and, I was certain, cracking under the pressure.
“I promise you, your father will understand.”
“She didn’t take us with her,” Griff rasped.
“I know,” I whispered.
He quickly wiped away new tears. “I miss her, and I know Dad doesn’t wanna hear it, but I do. She was gentle.”
“Like you,” Tatum told me.
Darwin nodded.
I scoffed. “Oh, you all, you don’t know. I can be loud and rough, so you gotta be ready when that happens, all right?”
“I think if you’re loud for us, then that’s okay,” Darwin insisted.
“Yeah,” Griff agreed. “I think it’s good.”
“Well, I’ll tell you what—I’m about to get really loud very quickly,” I stated, getting up and heading toward the door of the room we were in. Fortunately, the nurse came in at the same time with Griff’s discharge paperwork.
“Oooooh, you’re so lucky,” Tatum informed her.
The nurse didn’t understand the peril her eardrums just escaped, but Darwin dissolved into laughter.
We stopped at a diner the kids liked in Eena, and everyone who saw Griff gushed over him, which I appreciated. He looked rough, but he was in his clean clothes, and they had scrubbed off a lot of the blood at the hospital. With his bruised face, black eyes, bandage over the eyebrow, and split lip, it was clear he was hurt. What he needed was lots of love, and our waitress brought him some crispy bacon and homemade biscuits when she brought out the water and drinks. And yes, breakfast had been hours ago, but they served it all day, and it was what we all wanted.
Once we ordered, it took me a moment to realize I was under scrutiny.
“What?” I asked the table.
“Could you tell us about WITSEC?” Griff asked me.
I thought a moment. “Okay. First off, it’s not like in the movies at all.”
They all listened closely as I explained about the intake and how they chose where you lived, that you had no say in where they placed you. I then went through how you got a new name, a new life, everything.
“Like all your test scores, how well you do in your classes,” I told Darwin, “that’s all gone in the blink of an eye because those records belong to the old you.”
His mouth dropped open. “But I want to go to Harvard and be a doctor. I’ve been working super hard.”
“I understand that, and maybe…so did your mother.”
He was blinking at me, processing my words.
I turned to Griff. “When I read about you, I found out you’re a really good lacrosse player. Lots of trophies, captain of the varsity team and everything. The truth is, if you went with your mother, then the same thing would’ve applied to your feats on the field. They would simply disappear. So all those colleges that might have given you a scholarship, that couldn’t have happened anymore.”
“But if I can still play lacrosse, I could be on a new team and—”
I shook my head. “That’s not how it works. You can’t do anything in your new life that could point to your old one.”
“Why? How could the bad guys know what kind of sports I—”
“I did. Our tech guy, Owen, he digs up everything, and they would too.”
“So you’re saying when you go into WITSEC, it’s like night and day.”