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“Girl, get the fuck outta here! What happened?!”

“From what I heard, that whole mess at his company finally caught up with everybody involved. Apparently, once people started realizing they were facing real time, everybody started telling on everybody.”

“Damn.”

“Exactly. And Mr. I’m Just an Innocent Executive Caught in the Crossfire wasn’t nearly as innocent as he tried to make himself sound.”

That part, unfortunately, I already knew.

“I knew he was involved, but I didn’t know it had gotten that serious.”

“Oh, it got serious-serious… sentencing, restitution, federal time, the whole expensive-lawyer package.”

Well, damn.

I hadn’t spoken to Yonas since the last time we talked when he told me not to call him again if I was still staying in the mansion. So whatever happened with his job after that became his business, so I genuinely had no idea what had been going on in his life.

“Mommy, where’s Daddy? The sun is going down.”

I glanced toward the living room.

Kaidence was posted directly in front of the big window like somebody had hired him to personally supervise the sunset. Both hands were planted on the windowsill, his face practically pressed to the glass as he monitored the sky for any sign that daylight was finally giving up.

He had spent most of the day talking to his daddy, following him from room to room, and telling him about a video game Caspian had already heard about at least twelve times. Apparently, none of that counted until he could climb onto the couch beside him, lean against his arm, and put a controller in his hands.

Caspian had excused himself earlier to work on something with Miss Veda upstairs. Before he went, he had promised Kaidence he would be back downstairs and ready to play once the sun went down.

I smiled. “Girl, let me call you back. Mommy duties.”

I wanted to tell her Kaidence was about to file a formal complaint against the sun for taking too damn long to go down, but Nyelle didn’t know about our little sunset routine. As far as Nyelle knew, Caspian was dead and gone. She had no clue he spent his days in spirit form and his nights in a body I could actually wrap my arms around.

“Okay, boo. Call me tomorrow.”

“I will,” I replied then ended the call.

Nyelle had finally come down to Hallowridge the Thanksgiving before, just like she’d talked about doing, and somehow one visit had been enough for my family to claim her. Granny loved her. Willow loved her even more, which had been dangerous because the two of them together spent half the weekend talking shit and the other half laughing loud enough for everybody else to hear it.

Nyelle had gone home talking about my new family as if she hadn’t known them all of forty-eight hours.

Honestly, it had been one of the best Thanksgivings I could remember having in years.

“Mommy,” Kaidence called out to me again.

“I heard you, Kaidence. Daddy said he’d be finished with Miss Veda by sunset. Give him a little time, baby.”

“Well…” He pointed dramatically toward the window. “It’s taking forever.”

I bit back a laugh.

That had become our routine almost immediately after Kaidence learned that sunset meant his daddy could be solid again. Seeing and talking to him during the day was one thing. Being able to hug him, wrestle with him, and convince him to give piggyback rides up the stairs was another. During the first few months, he had practically started his countdown at breakfast, sometimes asking Caspian how many hours were left while standing right beside him. Eventually, he stopped asking quite as much, but the anticipation never went anywhere.

Every evening, without fail, he found his way to that living room window. That particular evening, he had already been standing there for at least twenty minutes, checking the sky every few seconds as though staring hard enough might convince the sun to hurry its ass up.

I sighed. “Kaidence, have a seat, baby.”

He immediately shook his head. “No, ma’am. I’m waiting on Daddy. He said he was gonna play the game with me tonight. He promised.”

“Then he’ll be here.”