She responded:
She’s inside. I’m heading to work now
He responded with a thumbs-up emoji just as she looked up to see Sheila giving her another real-life thumbs-up before going inside the center. The arrival rush had ended, and Sheila was done with her parking lot job for the day.
Gwen started her car, but couldn’t bring herself to shift into drive. She wasn’t ready for this. June wasn’t ready for this. Gwen couldn’t let down her baby again.
She opened her door, got out, left the car idling in the parking lot while she marched back inside. Ms. Johnson and a couple of her assistants, whose names Gwen had already forgotten, were tending to the babies, eight of them in total. When June saw Gwen come into the room, she started crying, and that was all Gwen needed to know what to do next.
“I’m sorry, I have to take her,” Gwen said to Ms. Johnson as they both approached June’s crib. Each of the babies had their own small crib.
“Mrs. Fisher, I assure you she’ll be just fine,” Ms. Johnson said.
One of her assistants, the middle-aged stout one with graying roots, said, “This makes it harder on the babies when the mothers do this.”
The mothers. The bothersome mothers.
“I’m sorry—she’s my baby, and I’m going to take her with me,” Gwen said.
She pushed past the barricade of Ms. Johnson and the stout woman and retrieved crying June from the crib. She grabbed the bag she’d packed for June from a cubby by the door, and then they were gone, ignoring the protests coming from behind them.
Gwen buckled June into her car seat and pulled out of the parking lot quickly. She saw Ms. Johnson and the stout woman and Sheila and the director of the facility, another forgotten name, standing at the entrance with looks of bewilderment on their faces.
Gwen took a left on Union, her brain still thinking she was going to work. But now she had June, and she didn’t know what she was going to do. She supposed she could bring June in with her to work, say that she just wanted everyone to meet her baby. They couldn’t argue with that, even if they were expecting her to get back to the grind on day one.
She took a left on First. The law firm was on First. She glanced back at June, who had stopped crying and was staring out the window. Whenshe looked back at the road, she realized she’d passed the law office and was coming up to the stoplight at Washington.
“Mommy’s brain is not working today,” she said to June.
She took a right on Washington, mentally calculating how to get back to First. That was how she ended up on Alaskan Way with all the signs directing drivers to the ferries. There wasn’t time to premeditate what came next. She would scrutinize her actions only later. But she got into the left-turn lane and found herself at the tollbooth for the Bainbridge Island ferry, buying a round-trip ticket. She pulled forward into the line of cars waiting to get on the ferry, put her car in park like everyone else. It was only then, when her car was in park in the ferry line, that she wondered what the hell she was doing. But she looked in her rearview mirror and saw several cars lining up behind her. There was no going back now.
She started to text Jeff, then stopped. She wasn’t sure what she was doing yet, didn’t know what to say. He would be worried. She decided to text Leigh, a Hail Mary.
Hey. Remember when you said we could be the crazy person to solve the Angeni Luna mystery? I’m getting on the ferry now. I know things have been weird and maybe you never want to talk to me again. But I miss you. Meet me on Bainbridge? Bring Belle. I’ve got June.
Her hands were shaking as she read it over once, twice. She felt the kind of thrill she imagined fugitives felt when they’d broken free and gone on the run.
The car in front of her started its engine. It was time to board. She started her car, and then she hit send.
Chapter 29
Angeni Luna
Much to Angeni’s relief, Freya had resumed breastfeeding several hours after Angeni had returned home from the hospital. Two days later, she was still going strong. It was as if nothing had happened between them, their relationship restored to its previous ease. There was still an odd feeling on The Land. Matt and Jer were acting like themselves, but everyone else seemed to be tiptoeing around her with a peculiar fear. Now that she was feeling better, she decided she needed to talk to Aurora first and foremost. She had to find out if she’d been the one to write the letter.
Angeni, wearing Freya in the carrier against her chest to maximize closeness after the trauma of their separation, found Aurora out front, car keys hanging from a finger. She was going somewhere.
“Where you off to?” Angeni called, standing on the porch, using one hand to shield her eyes from the sun.
Aurora turned around, seemingly startled. The sun appeared to blind her as she squinted in search of Angeni. When her eyes finally settled upon her, she smiled.
“Oh, hi,” she said. “I was going to the bay.”
It was common for Aurora to go to the bay—Manzanita Bay—whenever she needed to ponder something. Angeni couldn’t help but wonder what it was she needed to ponder.
“Mind if we come with?” she asked.
Aurora shrugged, but Angeni caught the slightest hesitation in her voice when she said, “Sure.”
