I raised my eyebrow. “You mean ‘Charlie and I,’ and I doubt they're going anyway, Daniel, don't stress it.”
“Why can't we go?” Daniel asked, voice cracking.
“We're probably going to go away until the baby is born,” I said, apprehensive about their reaction.
Stephen looked suspicious. “To where?”
“Do you know the house in North Carolina?” I asked.
He nodded. “I'm okay with that. It's really close to Charlotte, so we could find a lot to do there. And it's only about a four-hour drive to the beach, and my cousin has a house there.”
“See? It won't be so bad,” I said. The rest of the kids looked up to Stephen, like they were waiting to see how he’d react before they did. He seemed pleased, so they did as well.
Tammy walked in with Kohbi, wearing a different dress than the one I'd laid out the night before. She had the baby, Rose, fast asleep on her back in a carrier.
“Where's Talem? And what happened to your dress, Kohbi?”
“He's with Danyelus in the barn, and she spilled grape juice all over it. I threw it in the wash so it wouldn't stain.”
“Thanks.” She was thoughtful like that. I probably should've hated her for raising my sons, but I was grateful to have her. It hadn't been easy to swing back into motherhood, and in some ways, my boys still looked to her. She taught them most days, and they'd thought of her as a mother for a very long time. I spent too much time each day trying to be okay with that. I didn't hold it against her, though. She protected them and loved them when I couldn't.
I spent the afternoon helping Kohbi, Daniel, and Charlie with their math. They were vastly different kids. Kohbi didn’t have a head for numbers at all, but she excelled in her writing and English classes. Daniel took a few tries to get it right, but nearly melted down when he got it wrong after that. Charlie was lightning fast at math but wouldn’t read a book unless you threatened to take away his video games.
Elias stuck his head in the door about the time we were switching the kids over to do some reading before we let them loose for the day. He nodded me toward the door.
“What’s up, Eli?” I asked.
“We’ve got everything finalized for the trip. When do you want to go?”
“Let’s let the kids finish this week’s lessons. Friday should put me at thirty-five to thirty-seven weeks, depending on whose calculations you use.”
He looked at me like I was crazy. “What are you talking about?”
“The earliest I could’ve gotten pregnant, the absolute first possible moment was the night the three of us…” I looked back at the kids and found Stephen staring at us, trying to hear what we were saying. I stepped into the hall and shut the door. “When the three of us were together for the first time in your house in town.”
It turned out that the house had been rented, even the furnishings. When he got his few personal items out, that was all it took to leave that home behind. I still hadn’t contemplated cleaning out the home Michael and I had shared. We’d just paid the rent on it until I could deal. With the baby coming, who knew when it would happen.
“And that was exactly thirty-seven weeks ago?”
“No, that was thirty-five weeks ago. But I’m measuring at thirty-seven. So, I could go any time.”
“Okay, let’s go this Friday evening like you said. That’s just two more days. Can you get everything ready by then?”
“If you’ll help me get the kids’ stuff together, then absolutely.” We walked toward the stairs. The classroom was on the top floor, away from distractions the adults could cause in other parts of the house.
“Of course, we'll help you. You really don't have to lift a finger. We can get Tammy to help, too.”
“No, it's okay. I'll do it. I'm not an invalid, just easily tired.”
He smiled and threaded his fingers through mine as we walked slowly down the stairs. “Whatever you want, Riles.”
AXOULAR
I waited for Elias to leave the room before turning to Anthony, who was opening his laptop. I didn’t want them to gang up on me if they thought I was being too pushy. “What are you doing about Dumadi?” I asked Anthony. I knew he was trying to protect Riley while she was vulnerable.
“What do you mean?” he asked. “I just told you.” He was emailing someone he knew to get us all burner phones and a borrowed car once we took the portal to North Carolina, wherever that was. I couldn’t get a handle on the geography of Earth. It was just too big.
“I mean, the man is on the run. He said they knew where this house was, even though they couldn't get through the wards to get to it. For all we know he's hiding in the woods just outside your wards.”
