“I’m not thinking straight, or I would’ve thought to ask him not to say anything.”
“Of course you would have,” Angela said.
“I hate that he knows people are talking about him that way.”
“He would’ve heard about it the minute he returned to school,” Sam said, “so maybe it’s better he knows now and can process all of it at the same time.”
“You guys don’t have any cigarettes, do you?” Tracy asked.
“Ah, no,” Sam said. “I haven’t had one since the last time I smoked with you guys.” That, too, had happened the week she’d reconnected with Nick after John O’Connor’s murder.
“Kinda pregnant over here,” Angela said. “None for me.”
“I might go buy some.”
“Don’t start that up again, Trace,” Sam said.
“If it helps my anxiety, why not?”
“Have you talked to Mike?”
“He called to ask how Ethan is doing, but that was it.”
“You’ll let him see the kids, won’t you?” Ang asked tentatively.
“He can come by sometime, but he can’t stay.”
“Trace…” The single word from Angela conveyed a world of agony. “You can’t mean to freeze him out entirely.”
“That’s exactly what I mean to do. He’s proven I can’t trust him to make sound decisions for our children. We got lucky this time.” She made air quotes around the word lucky. “Our son is only traumatized, not dead. I’m not giving him another chance to decide what Ethan and Abby are allowed to do.”
“That’s reasonable,” Sam said. “If he comes back, you’re in charge of the kids. Nonnegotiable.”
“It’s not that simple. Imagine if Nick or Spencer allowed your children to do something that nearly got one of them killed, after you tried to tell him it was unwise. Add to it that he was condescending and dismissive of your concerns. Would you be so quick to forgive?”
“Probably not,” Sam said, even as she couldn’t imagine a scenario where she’d feel that way about Nick. Often, he was the voice of reason when it came to their kids, while she advocated a looser approach, which was kind of funny since she was the cop.
“Yeah, it wouldn’t be simple,” Angela said. “That’s for sure.”
“I know you guys love Mike. I love Mike. But I’m very, very angry about his role in allowing something like this to happen, and it won’t be fixed overnight, if ever.”
“Fair enough,” Sam said. “You’ll tell us what we can do to help?”
“The statements the MPD and Nick’s team issued seem to have helped. From what I’m hearing, a lot of people are telling the conspiracy peddlers to stand down and stop preying on innocent kids. I just hope it’s not too little too late to preserve his reputation.”
“He had nothing to do with what happened to Luna,” Sam said. “The case is being made against the men who did, and Ethan won’t be charged with anything. He’s a victim of a crime.”
“You know that, and I know that, but it’s what everyone else thinks that matters. Will the stuff that was said about him in the last twelve hours keep him out of college someday or make it so he can’t get a job?”
“I hope not,” Sam said.
“We all know it’s possible this’ll haunt him for the rest of his life—and that’s why I’ll be hard-pressed to forgive Mike.”
“Don’t think we don’t understand, because we do,” Sam said. “It’s just that we love you both, and it’s hard for us to imagine a world where you’re not together and happy.”
“We haven’t been happy in a while,” Tracy confessed, taking her sisters by surprise.
“Since when?” Angela said.
