I just need the two of you.

She needs Abigala, I know. She needs Abigala to be her new Ava, her new success story and model and inspiration. But why does she need me?

Sloan leaves us again. She goes back to Shan on a secret mission. Bayan knows what it is, but none of the rest of us do, and he won’t tell us anything. Lilly keeps going back into the city, every few days, and sometimes she does not come home for dinner. Those are the nicest days, because Taymer can sit with us, but Abigala does not. She does her things for Lilly in Ava’s old office in the library and sometimes she goes into the city, too. When she goes in, and whenever Lilly goes in, Bayan drives them, so Taymer makes dinner for us. He’s only fifteen or sixteen years old, he looks like, he’s probably never cooked a day in his life before now, but there are a few recipe books in the cupboards and Lilly orders ingredients to arrive every few days and he does a good job. I wonder if he will ever cook again, after this.

He sits with us, too, at the table, Ava insists that he comes out to sit with us. I think he has gathered by now that Ava is not the same as her mother. It took me a little while to realize that Ava was not the same as her mother. I wonder, sometimes, when Bayan realized it. I wonder when Ava realized it. She must have grown up idolizing her mother, trusting and believing in her, because how could you not trust and believe your own mother? I did. I miss my mom. Ava knows it, and she is looking for her, which is what makes her different than Lilly. Lilly took her away. Ava will bring her home.

But for now there is not much that Ava can do. She has her laptop and she has been reconnecting with people from her job, the job she ran away from, she does not know if she still even has a job at the moment, and that job wasn’t related to the agencies anyway. But there are people in her department and even in Lilly’s department who she trusts, and who she has been talking to recently. And she is talking to Sloan, to Alicia, and to Alicia’s sister who is up here, somewhere else in the city, I’ve heard her on the phone with someone she called Bellie and when I asked her who it was she said it was Alicia’s sister, but when I asked her what they were talking about she just said, “Oh, nothing.”

Sometimes Lilly goes into the city, with Bayan, but without Abigala. Those days are awkward because I don’t think Abigala knows what to do. She wants to help Lilly and she wants to see me, but she does not know how she can do both. So one day, when she is not helping Lilly, when Lilly has left her at home, she comes to find me, again, and she says, “Have you been in my office?”

“Sometimes,” I answer, tilting my head to look at her. I’m in the second floor living room, down the hall from the library, clicking through the channels on the TV without really watching anything. Sloan has gone down to Shan again, she says she’ll be back tomorrow, and Penny and Ava and Nua are down by the pool. “It’s Ava’s office, though.”

“Yeah, yeah,” mutters Abigala, leaning on her elbows on the back of the couch next to me. “What are you watching?”

“Dunno,” I say with a yawn. “I haven’t decided yet.”

“Remember that show we used to watch with Mom and Dad?” she asks, hopping over the back of the couch so she plops down next to me. She takes the remote and clicks something, and I smile a little, looking at her. “Which one?”

“The one we watched at nights,” she says, “the first grown-up show we watched.”

“Oh, yeah,” I say with a smile. “It wasn’t even a grown-up show.”

“Yeah, but we thought it was,” says Abigala with a grin, “because it was on at nine pm and Mom and Dad liked it.”

I laugh. The last time I was in this room we were watching a soap opera. But now Abigala has found the show we used to watch at home, it’s called Game On and it’s a sitcom and I haven’t seen in years, I don’t know why Abigala remembers it now, but she looks at me once it’s going, and I look at her too. “We’d have chocolate popcorn.”

“Oh, god,” says Abigala with a laugh. “That stuff was so bad.”

“What? It was amazing.”

“You thought so,” she says, rolling her eyes, and I say, “Ava’s just into, like, dramas. She likes the one about the Spanish royal family or whatever.”

“Oh, yeah, that one is super popular,” says Abigala. “I’ve never watched it, but the actors are turning into, like, huge breakout stars now and they’re in everything.”

“New movies and stuff?”

“Yeah, I guess,” says Abigala. “I haven’t seen anything lately, I haven’t watched a lot of TV or anything.”

“Yeah, me either,” I murmur, as the theme song starts to go on the TV. “We should, though, we always used to watch stuff together.”

“Yeah,” says Abigala with a sigh. “Remember that reality show?”

“Oh, the, like, survival strategy game,” I say with a grin. “Mom was obsessed with that.”

“Dad thinks Mom was obsessed with it only because of that one season with that one candidate that she thought was handsome,” says Abigala, and I laugh. “Oh, yeah, he was always teasing her about that.”

Abigala smiles too, looking over at me, and I say, “Have you talked to them?”

“No,” she answers after a moment. “I haven’t seen them at all.”

“Did you help them get arrested?”

“No,” says Abigala quietly, her eyes suddenly shining soft with tears.

“Did you, like, tell Lilly where we lived?”

“No, Aber,” says Abigala, and I look at her. She sniffles. “I didn’t want, I didn’t know…”

“Okay,” I say softly. “Yeah, I know.”

“But they’re safe, Aber,” she says softly. “I know they are, she’s told me, and I know you don’t trust her, and look, I’ve talked to her, these past few weeks, since you’ve come back, and she’s going to explain it to us.”

“Like you tried to explain the other day in the garden?” I ask, and she smiles a little, and shakes her head. “I think we need to all sit down and talk.”

“Isn’t that all we’ve been doing since we came back?” I say, and she shakes her head. “No, Aber, all of us. You and me and Lilly, and Mom and Dad.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I raise my eyebrows. “You think she’s gonna do that?”

And Abigala nods. She sniffles a little, and she nods again. “Yeah. Yeah, I do. Lilly has been…so steadfast, for years, for decades. She’s never seen what it’s been like for us, for Mom and Dad before. I think she has to, and then it can come together, we can, I don’t know, I don’t know if we’ll all work together, but we can, we can at least start talking about it.”

“You wanna bridge the gap?” I ask, and Abigala smiles a little. “I’m on your side, Aber. I’m on Mom and Dad’s side.”

“But you were saying all those things, Abi,” I say softly, as a commercial starts to go in the background. “You were saying that what Mom and Dad did was illegal, and that the boys ran away…”

“I didn’t get to finish,” says Abigala, there’s a hint of frustration in her voice but it’s not at me. “I was trying to explain to you. Lilly goes after people like Mom and Dad because they’re breaking the law. But we know they’re doing something good, even if it is against the law. So how can you reconcile that, legally and morally. I was trying to help Lilly see that, but when we first started talking, I couldn’t, I couldn’t just come out and say that my parents were running an illegal shelter.”

“No,” I say with a slight smile. “I guess not.”

“That’s why I had to keep going back, and seeing her again, and listening to her. Seeing her part of it and then showing her mine, as much as I could’ve. And she wanted me to come work for her so we could keep working on it.”

“Abi,” I murmur, and she scoffs. “I know you don’t believe me, you don’t think she would ever come to anyone let alone me for help or advice or anything, but I swear. I was trying, at least. I was trying.”

“Yeah,” I say softly. “No, I know, Abi, I get it, I get that part.”

“Yeah?” she asks, she looks relieved, and I sigh. “I’m. Yeah. I’m trying to.”

“I don’t want you to be mad at me, Aber,” she says softly, and I shake my head. “I’m not. I’m just…trying to figure it out.”

“Yeah,” mutters Abigala, leaning her head back. “Yeah, I know. Me, too.”

“Hey, there you are,” says Ava from the doorway, and then she jumps over the back of the couch, too, to land sitting on my other side. I laugh a little, scooting over to make room, and she kicks her feet up on the coffee table. “Whatcha watching?”

Penny and Nua come in, too, flopping down on the chairs around us, Penny is still in his bathing suit but it doesn’t look wet, they must have gotten out a little while ago. It must be warm outside, for the sun to dry them off so quick. Abigala answers. “Game On.”

“Oh, we used to watch that,” says Penny, sitting sideways in the chair so he can see the TV. “I think it was the first thing we watched in this room here, on the big screen.”

“Oh, yeah,” says Ava with a yawn, leaning her head on my shoulder. Abigala just smiles.

It is late, by the time Miss Lilly gets back with Bayan, but we’re all still in the living room watching the TV. We’ve binged about an entire season by that point, and Lilly only finds us because she comes up to go into her office. She sees us all on the couches and chairs in there, and calls for Abigala to go with her. She makes a face at me, but does. Bayan comes to sit down in her spot on the couch, and Ava looks over at him, and then up at me as she puts her head back down on my shoulder. “Did you talk to her?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“’Bout what?” asks Penny, also with a yawn, and he makes me yawn too as I answer. “Oh, you know, she’s saying she did everything for the greater good and she’s trying to sway your mother.”

“Mhm,” says Ava, closing her eyes, and I look over at Nua, but he’s curled up watching the show. I catch Bayan’s eye, though, and he just smiles a little, and he does not say anything.

The next night Bayan helps Taymer make dinner. It’s a roast or something and there are potatoes and a salad and it’s really good, and I wonder again if Taymer likes cooking. If I got kidnapped and was forced to cook I would never cook again, after. I hope there is an after for Taymer.

Sloan is due to back tonight, so we wait in the downstairs living room for her. There’s a TV in here, too, but we don’t turn it on. Nua has a book and Bayan has Penny to lie on and Ava has her phone, although when I try to look at it she doesn’t let me see what she is doing. So I just tilt my head back and look at the ceiling until Bayan stands, he’s been keeping an eye on the time and it’s time to let Sloan back in. It’s late when it’s finally time, it’s definitely past nine o’clock, and it is dark outside. Ava looks up, too, when Bayan stands, and then she follows him. They go into the foyer, Bayan must always check the button to make sure the fence isn’t on, and then they come back around to look at the sliding glass doors. I guess Sloan is coming in from the backyard again. Ava says something softly to Bayan, and he just responds with a nod, and then he opens the back door.

Sloan comes in after a moment, she is breathing heavy and she says hi to Ava, and then she passes a bundle of something to Bayan from her arms so she can reach down and take her shoes off. Ava puts her hand on her shoulder, and then says, “What’s that?”

Bayan does not answer. He just adjusts the bundle carefully in his arms, and Sloan looks up but does not answer either, and Penny on the far side of the room sits up. “What’d you bring back?”

And then a baby cries, and Ava gasps. I sit up, looking over, and Nua does too, slowly closing his book. “Is that…”

“That’s Julian,” whispers Ava, taking the baby from Bayan. He lets her. She holds the bundle of blanket close to her, and then she looks up at Bayan and Sloan, her eyes wide. “Why did you bring, why do you have Marissa’s baby?”

“Nerev asked me to take him,” says Sloan, straightening up. She looks at Julian, but does not attempt to take him back, and Ava bounces him in her arms so he’ll quiet. He sobs a little still, but she moves him so his head is laying on her shoulder, and I see one of his little hands come out of the blanket to reach for her neck. I stand up, and Penny goes over to her too. “Why?”

“He needs to grow,” answers Bayan softly after a moment. And then he reaches out for the baby, Ava pulls away, but Bayan reaches for him. He takes Julian gently from her, he holds him carefully in his arms, and he goes upstairs.

Ava stares after him, her mouth agape. After a moment she turns back to Sloan. “You took the baby.”

“Nerev gave me the baby,” says Sloan quietly, reaching out and putting her hands on Ava’s shoulders. “Ava. It’s okay. We planned this.”

“For how long?”

“Since he was born,” says Sloan gently. “Bayan’s right, Nerev and Marissa agree. He can’t live underground, Ava, he had to get up as soon as possible.”

Ava makes a noise, and then looks over her shoulder, and she says, “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” says Sloan with a smile. “I wouldn’t kidnap a baby, Ava, Nerev gave him to me.”

Ava manages a laugh, and then she looks at me, and at Penny, and then over her shoulder to where Bayan left. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“Marissa said so?” asks Ava, and Sloan smiles a little again. “She and Nerev agreed. Nerev gave Julian to me. They’re going to come up again as soon as they can, to find him.”

“But Marissa said so?” asks Ava, and Sloan nods. “Look, we’re going to find Nerev’s sister, and she’s gonna take care of him for a little bit, until Marissa can come up and be with him.”

“You took her baby from her,” says Ava softly, and Sloan sighs. “Ava.”

“Oh, my god, how can we have a baby here?” says Ava, and Penny steps in. “Hey,” he says softly, taking her hand. “He’s gonna be okay.”

Ava takes a deep breath, and closes her eyes, and then nods. “We know Nerev’s sister?”

“Yup,” says Sloan. “He has a brother-in-law, one of her husbands, who’s gonna take care of him. It’s gonna be okay.”

Ava takes another deep breath, and then she turns, and she goes up the stairs. We follow behind her, she goes up the stairs and down the hall into her bedroom, and she lets us all in, and then she closes the door behind her. “Oh, god.”

“Ava,” I say softly, and she shakes her head. “Okay. Just…is he okay? Was it hard to bring him up?”

“Not at all,” says Sloan. “He’s okay. He’s been eating and sleeping like normal, but Nerev and Marissa and Shan all know that he needs fresh air and sunlight.”

“Yeah,” whispers Ava. “Oh god. Okay.”