“Hey. Any updates?”
“Not yet. Sandra said she’d call back and hasn’t yet.”
Callum drops his bag and walks over. It makes me smile because he doesn’t live here, but he should at this point. He pulls me into a hug and says, “It’s going to be okay.”
I nod against his shoulder even though I don’t know if I believe it.
When he pulls back, Jax is standing there, staring at me. I stare back as the silence stretches. Awkward. Heavy. I haven’t seen him in a long time. He’s been staying at his mom’s, and it’s killing me.
Then my phone rings. My heart races as I look at the screen.Sandra.
“Hello?”
“Miss Lopez. I have good news. We can do an emergency placement today if you have a co-guardian available.”
“I do. My—” I pause and look at Zephyr. “My partner. He’s over twenty-one.”
“Excellent. Can you both be at the office at two?”
“Yes. We’ll be there.”
I hang up and look at Zephyr. “They need us there at two. You have to sign papers as co-guardian.”
Zephyr looks at Jax.
Jax watches me, and then he says, “I’m taking you.”
“What?” I ask, confused.
“I’m taking you to CPS. I already talked to Marcus. He set this up.”
“What are you talking about?”
Jax exhales. “I’ve been working with Marcus since you were in the hospital, getting the paperwork ready, making sure we’d be approved. I’m the co-guardian. I finally got her out of that foster home.”
The words don’t make sense. “You... what?”
Zephyr and Callum exchange looks.
“You did this?” I ask. My voice sounds distant. “But… why?”
His jaw clenches. “Because Zinnia deserves better than the system. And you deserve to have her back.”
“But you—”
“Can we talk about this later?” His voice is hard. “We need to leave in twenty minutes to make it on time.”
I stare at him, trying to understand. I’m trying to process the fact that he helped me even while he was furious with me. I figured his disgust would’ve kept him at his mom’s house, but now I’m relieved he came back. He already knew this was going to happen, he just didn’t tell me.
“Okay,” I say finally. “Give me a second.”
I walk to my room, close the door, and stand there for a moment trying to catch my breath.
He came back. He set this up. He’s helping me.
But he’s still upset. Still distant. Still looking at me like I’ve broken something he can’t fix.
I change quickly and walk back out.
