Leaving a man like Chris was a fraught decision in the best of circumstances. And with Mia involved, it became an impossible choice. Laurie wasn’t willing to sacrifice time with her daughter, was loath to leave her in Chris’s care for half of each week, and that was the most likely outcome. In modern-day Hawaii, fathers were almost always granted equal custodial rights – regardless of how they treated their children or what they might have done to their wives.
And so she stayed, and tiptoed around him, and smiled at her daughter.
She made the best of things.
Chris didn’t know that Halia was driving to pick them up. He always found some excuse to keep them home – or to preventMia from leaving, at least, which was pretty much the same thing. Laurie hadn’t even been allowed to stay overnight with her family the night of the funeral.
Aside from that awful weekend, which was lost to a haze of shock and grief, this was the first time that all five sisters were home at once in years. Laurie had chosen to beg forgiveness rather than asking permission. She would message Chris to tell him that Halia dropped by to pick them up for a sisters weekend. He wasn’t likely to drive down to get them, not if they only stayed for a couple of nights.
It was a gorgeous house, Halia observed grimly as she pulled up the driveway. Two stories tall, with a huge green lawn on both sides. Walking distance from the tiny private school that Mia went to, but on enough land surrounded by thick vegetation that the place still felt isolated.
The house was white when they bought it, but Laurie’s husband had painted it an awful shade of blue-gray that made Halia think of a prison. His energy lingered about the place like a living ghost, and it gave her the creeps.
Laurie and Mia were waiting on the front porch. They had one small duffel bag between them, and a sharp twist of disappointment caught Halia off guard.
Some part of her had hoped that this was it – that Laurie wouldn’t go back.
She knew better, but occasionally her hope outpaced her good sense.
Halia turned her attention to her sister. Laurie’s thick black curls were loose, shining in the midday sun. The curves of her bright purple hearing aids were visible over each ear.
It was hard sometimes, to look at one of her sisters and not see the little girl she had been — to see Laurie as a grown woman, when in her mind’s eye she saw the small girl who sat out on thefront steps every Sunday waiting for a birth mother who never showed.
“Hi Auntie!” Mia threw her arms around Halia as soon as she stepped out of the car. Her sleek brown hair was warm from the sun. “Thank you for getting us!”
“You’re welcome, sweetheart.” She lifted her niece into a hug, then set her down again. “Got all your stuff?”
“Yep!” Mia rescued the stuffed dolphin she’d dropped and clutched it to her chest. “That’s everything!”
Laurie had already put their bag on the car. She smiled when she said hello, but there was a miserable look in her eyes that tore at Halia’s heart.
“Thank you for driving all the way up here.”
“My pleasure. It’s a beautiful drive.”
“This weekend is supposed to be about you.” Laurie’s eyes shone with unshed tears. “It’s not fair for you to have to drive all the way up here on your own birthday.”
“Ilikethe drive,” Halia said and signed. “It’s practically a vacation. Anyway, my birthday’s not until tomorrow. Now, go on. Get in.”
Halia ducked into the driver’s seat and sat down again. She didn’t want to linger on Chris’s property any longer than she had to. A plumber who often drove down into Kona, he worked long hours – but they were irregular hours, and he loved to pop back home without warning. Probably he was terrified of his gorgeous wife taking up with someone else while he was away.
Laurie sniffed back tears as she got into the car, but her smile was bright when she turned to look at Mia.
“Buckle up!” she said.
“I’m on my way to grandma’s house,” Mia sang as she fastened her seatbelt. “I’m going to see my cousins!”
They coasted down the driveway, leaving the oppressive gray house behind them. With one hand on the wheel and the other grasping her sister’s, Halia turned towards home.
11
Anne
“Mom!” Pete shouted. The urgency in his voice made her drop her mop and sprint to the second floor, taking the stairs two at a time.
“Pete? What is it?”
“What are those?” he exclaimed, pointing to the ceiling.
