“Good point.”
“You can’t trust the French.”
Sienna lets out a small chuckle. “True.”
They walk on a little longer, then Sienna says, “I’m pretty sure this is actually all my fault.” Her voice cracks, and she stops walking. “I was so damn sure that what Ivy wrote was just nonsense. I told Poppy that I didn’t want to hear it unless Ivy was actually about to do the bad thing and she had proof.”
“Oh, Sienna, how could you possibly have known it would lead to this?”
Shrugging, she says. “I’m their mother. It’s my job to know. I should’ve gone straight into Ivy’s room and read that stupid diary myself.” She sucks in a shaky breath. “There are a lot of days that I’m sure I don’t know the first damn thing about being a mother. I try. I tryso hardto do the right thing and make sure they have what they need, but … I’m screwing it all up. And Zane is no help. Even when he’s there. He’s more clueless than I am. To be honest, most of the time he makes my life harder. Not that you’ll believe that because you’ve got your Zane blinders on. But, whatever. The point is, parenting is really fucking hard, and I may have made a mistake that I can’t take back.”
For the first time, Claudia feels sorry for Sienna. She puts on this act of being so confident—the perfect wife and mom—but the truth is, she’s as scared as everyone else. She puts her hand on Sienna’s shoulder, feeling it shake with the same fear she was feeling. “It’s okay, Sienna. It’s not your fault.”
“I think it is.” She stops and kneels down, as if collapsing with the pain of it all.
Claudia crouches, placing a hand on each of Sienna’s shoulders. “We’ll find them. You and me. We’ll find our babies, and they’ll be just fine,” she whispers.
“But what if we don’t?”
She stands, helping Sienna to her feet. “We will.”
They continue on. Sienna sniffles and wipes her tears away. After a few minutes, Claudia mutters, “That fucking comet. The second it appeared in the sky, all the shit started.”
“What?”
“It was the night I … said Zane’s name.” She points up at it, feeling more than a little insane. “And now here it is laughing at us.”
“Fucking comet,” Sienna says.
In the distance, the helicopter stops, hovering for a few seconds before it begins its descent to the ground. Both women watch, hearts pounding.
“It’s them,” Claudia says. “It’s got to be.”
Grabbing Claudia’s hand, Sienna breaks into a run. Hurrying along, they hold each other up if one of themstumbles, racing to their children, to whatever fate awaits them. They outrun the fear and the grisly images their brains conjure up. They shed their anger for each other, the pain they’ve caused one another, their failures to see each other as human beings who need the same things. They leave behind that awful sense of competition to be seen by a man who saw no one but himself.
When they get close enough, they hear the most perfect of any sound they could hope to hear—two children wailing loudly. It was the same sound you wait for with your breath held in a delivery room. Proof of life.
“Can you hear that?” Claudia asks, forcing her exhausted legs to move faster.
“Oh my God,” Sienna whispers, letting out a sob. “They’re alive. They’re really alive.”
Moments later, they reach the helicopter, just as Elliott is being handed off from a SAR officer standing on the ground to one inside.
“Poppy!” Sienna screams.
Poppy, who was clinging to one of the rescue workers, wiggles out of his arms. “Mommy!”
SIENNA
Sienna lets go of Claudia’s hand and rushes to her little girl, scooping her up and holding her tightly. The pair sob and hug and apologize to each other while Claudia is boosted into the helicopter to take her son.
Sienna lets herself be led onto the aircraft, managing to climb up without letting go of her little girl. It’s a feat of strength that surprises the men. It surprises her too. Siennais so much stronger than she gave herself credit for. She proved it that night. She can be a leader. She can be humble and kind to someone who hurt her. She can be all the things she wanted her children to be. She already was.
The last of the SAR officers gets aboard and gestures for the pilot to take them up. He looks at Claudia and Sienna. “The kids look fine, but we’re going straight to the hospital to have a doctor check them over. It’s protocol.”
Both women nod, not caring at all where they’re going now that their children are safe in their arms again. Sienna asks him for a blanket, then positions it so Claudia can nurse the baby without an audience. Tears stream down Claudia’s face and she gives Sienna a grateful smile.
After a minute, the man purses his lips at them. “Couldn’t stay put and wait?”
