My parents take a day or two to get used to things around here, and then my mom jumps into action. Two days after they get home she asks me to bring her to where Ava works, and so I take her to Lilly’s office, I’m not sure if she’s gone into work today, but when I knock on the door she says come in, and I let my mom in. She asks if Ava needs any help, and Ava says, “Oh, my god, yes,” and I leave them be. They are there the entire day, past the time I go to bed, but Ava is there when I wake up the next morning, and I murmur, “Did you get along with my mom?”

“Your mom is awesome,” Ava murmurs into her pillow, not opening her eyes. I smile a little, yawning. “Yeah.”

“We needed some adults in the house,” says Ava sleepily, adjusting herself, and I scoff. “We’re adults.”

“Are we?”

I open an eye and look at her. She does not open her eyes, but she knows that I am looking, and she smiles.

So my mom works with Ava and my dad asks me to show him around the house, so I show him the upstairs living room and the downstairs living room and the dining room and the library, we spend quite some time in the library together, and then I show him outside, the pool and the fountain and the garden that Ava built for Penny, and for Keol. He asks about Keol, the way Penny did, and I tell him what I can remember and what I think I know. He asks if their marriage was arranged, too, and I say yes. I try to explain that I was the first one she picked, really, other than Owen, but it was not as if she had much of a choice, because she only married him to save him and she only married me because I was the only one who was of age and she was going to have to marry someone anyway if not me. My dad sighs when I tell him this. We go back inside to the library again after that.

It is later that week that Bayan makes a dinner for us and we are all sitting around the table, Sloan has gone back to Shan with the news of my parents and I hope she tells Haywood that I have found them again, and I hope they have news for us from Nerev’s sister Paige, she’s in contact both with Ava above ground and with Shan below ground and Ava spends the dinner trying to explain the whole Shan thing to my parents. Mom is incredulous; “You lived underground for six months?” is her main question, directed at me, until Penny says that he lived underground for three years, and Dad laughs, burying his face in his hands, and says, “That’s insane. That’s all I can say, Ane, that it’s crazy.”

“It’s crazy,” agrees my mom, “that our son was underground for half a year when we didn’t even know where he was and the only people we were in contact with were our lawyer and his mother-in-law who didn’t even tell us she was his mother-in-law.”

I look at Ava; she shrugs a little bit. Then her eyes light up, and she gestures with her chin to my Mom. “Speaking of, you should talk to your parents about the annulment stuff.”

I roll my eyes, and Nua scoffs. “Not this again.”

“I actually don’t think it’s a bad idea,” says Dad, leaning forward, and Ava grins. I look at him incredulously. “Really?”

“You’re nineteen years old, Abbie,” says Mom softly, reaching her hand out for me. She’s taken to sitting at the head of the table across from Ava, and Dad usually sits next to me with Nua back next to Ava again so I can be near my parents. That’s where Abigala used to sit, at Lilly’s right hand, but Abigala does not have dinner with us anymore. She is angry at Ava and she is a little bit angry at Mom and Dad because they have agreed with Ava about the house arrest. I still do not know what Abigala has told my parents about what happened in the year we were all apart, but right now my mother is worried about me. “You’re too young to be married, you shouldn’t be married.”

“Sure,” I say in slight frustration, “but I am, and there are other people who need an annulment more than we do.”

“It’s not like there’s only a set number of annulments they can give out, Abbie,” says Dad. Nua snorts, but doesn’t say anything, and I roll my eyes again. “Yeah, Dad, I know, I just. I don’t get why you don’t want to be married so bad.”

Ava laughs a little when I say this, reaching out for Nua’s hand. “I don’t not want to be married. I would love to be married if it meant something real, but the way it is right now, it’s just a trap. It’s a contract and a promise that you can’t break and you didn’t get to choose to promise it. It’s not fair.”

“Come on,” I say, looking at Nua, looking at Penny, but no one offers me support here. “Mom, you’re married.”

And my mother laughs, looking at Dad, and says, “No, I’m not.”

“Huh?”

“We never got married like that,” says Dad with a smile. “Not legally or anything. We’ve never been married.”

“You haven’t?” I say, and then I feel stupid, of course they’ve never been married, why would they ever get married like this, Ava’s right, of course Ava’s right. Mom smiles, and says, “No. We don’t need the government involved in our family. We just made a promise to each other.”

“Isn’t that nice,” murmurs Ava, but she holds up her hands and she holds her tongue when I glare at her. Abigala joins us, then.

I look up in surprise, and she smiles a little, sitting down on the arm of Mom’s chair, and she looks up at her, taking her arm. “Hey, you.”

“Hey,” says Abigala softly.

“You okay?” asks Dad, and she shrugs. “Yeah. Just…I don’t know.”

“Anything you wanna tell us?” asks Ava under her breath, and I say, “Ava.”

She smiles slightly, spearing a piece of broccoli with her fork, and Penny stands up suddenly. “Bayan, you need help with the dishes?”

Bayan does not answer, but he rises too, and reaches for the plate in the center of the table. Nua stands as well, and when I look up at him he shrugs, reaching over for my plate too. “Seems like a family matter.”

I watch him go into the kitchen, and then I look at Abigala. She looks at me, too, an expression on her face I don’t know what it is, and then she swallows and looks down at Mom. “Mom, I got married, too.”

Ava looks up at her. Our mom does too, she does not seem that surprised, and after a moment she sighs. She points to the chair on her other side across from Dad, where Taymer sits, and says, “I know, dear.”

Abigala sits. Ava stands. She moves over to Nua’s seat to sit next to me, and I feel anxiety in my stomach. “Why are you saying this now?”

“Because your parents need to know what’s going on in this house,” says Ava softly, reaching over to take my hand. I pull it away. “What, are we having an intervention?”

“No,” says Mom. “Abigala, Ava told me a few days ago that you were married. She also told me that you were working with Lilly while we were away. I’ve been looking at some things with Ava, and we’re trying to untangle this web that her mother left behind before she died. We’ve been meaning to come to you to ask what part you had to play in it.”

“I know,” says Abigala. she takes a deep breath, and then she says, “I didn’t know exactly what I was getting into. But I did know, generally, what Lilly did. I had met her before.”

“How many times before?” asks my mother. Abigala shrugs. “A couple…times. Maybe like five or six.”

Dad raises his eyebrows, and Abigala shrugs again. “It was just, it was things I was doing, going to the place she worked and then places she was visiting and sometimes it was a coincidence but then she asked me what I was doing and I said I was doing research and she asked if…if I wanted to help her.”

“How exactly were you supposed to help her?” asks Dad, and she shrugs. “I don’t know. I just started being her assistant.”

“When did she make you get married?” asks Mom, and I look at her, and then at Abigala. I don’t know what she’ll say to that. She just shrugs again, and says, “A little while after you guys were taken away. She said she would take care of me, but I needed to help her too.”

“When did she tell you to have the kids?” I ask. Mom turns to look at me, lightning fast, and then her expression changes, from one of gentle understanding to one of confusion and astonishment. “The kids?”

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I look at Abigala, and then at Mom, and then at Ava. “You didn’t tell her about the kids?”

“I figured it wasn’t really my place, that part,” murmurs Ava, and Abigala shakes her head. “Mom.”

“I knew you were married,” says Mom slowly, but I can hear anger creeping into her voice. “I didn’t know you had kids.”

“Baby,” says Dad, his voice slow and controlled, “how many?”

Abigala does not answer. I do. “Six.”

She looks at me. So do my parents.

“Unless you’ve had more, since Shan got their intel.”

Tears are welling in Abigala’s eyes. She shakes her head, but does not say anything, and Mom takes a slow, deep, breath. “Abigala. Did you rape those boys?”

Ava winces, she is thinking of Owen and of Keol, I know, I know, I don’t know what to do about it, I don’t know what to say anymore, why are we having this conversation right now, why are we talking about this, why did Abigala come down now to talk to my parents, what is going on. Abigala is crying now, and again I am angry, what right does she have to cry right now when we are talking about the children that she has conceived through forced marriages that she will not even confirm are legal. I don’t want to do this right now; I stand up, and I go outside.

I stand on the back porch for a moment, unsure of what to do now, and then I sink shaking into one of the chairs by the table out here. I was not prepared for this to happen tonight. The sun is setting behind the house, and I look at the long shadows on the lawn from the trees. I wonder if I should go back inside, Ava clearly wanted me there for the discussion, or maybe not, maybe Abigala just decided that now was the time and we happened to be there, I don’t know what is happening at all but I do not want to hear my parents talk about rape and about my sister doing it. I don’t think Abigala wants me to hear that either. She has never talked about her husbands before, which is the problem. She will not tell us where they are.

I hear the door open behind me, and I turn around to see Ava coming out to join me. “Hey,” I say in surprise, and she smiles, but sighs. “Hey.”

She has her laptop and a beer can, and she runs her fingers through her hair and then sighs. “I asked her to come down to talk to your parents.”

“You did? Why now?”

“Well, I just said she was going to have to, sooner or later, and we would see what they said. If they didn’t agree with me on the whole house arrest thing I’d stop it and maybe she could start helping me and your mom.”

“Did you really think my mom was going to be okay with it?”

“No,” says Ava, putting her laptop down. “Seems like she held out hope, though.”

She goes to the railing and looks out over the pool, and then turns back to me. “You want a beer?”

I raise my eyebrows. “Really?”

She shrugs.

“I thought you wanted my parents to like you.”

She manages a laugh at that, and says, “Just try it.”

She comes over and sits next to me, handing it over, and I take a sip. Then I wrinkle my nose and shake my head, forcing it down, and say, “Nope.”

“Not for you?” she says with a laugh, taking it back. She takes a sip herself, and says, “Alright.”

I draw my legs up to my chest, putting my feet on my chair, and wrap my arms around my knees. “You told them about the husbands?”

“I kinda had to,” says Ava. “Your sister complained to your mother that I was keeping her trapped here but didn’t tell her why so when your mom came to talk to me about it I…”

“Was she mad?”

“She was so mad about the husbands,” says Ava softly, “I didn’t even want to bring up the kids. I mean, Abigala would’ve told your parents right away if she had been forced to marry, right, so it seems like she had some choice in the matter, but we can’t say the same about those boys. And the fact that she won’t tell us where they are…”

“I know,” I murmur. I just cannot believe it all. My parents are back with me and I am with Ava and Nua and Miss Lilly is gone, it should be perfect, it should all be perfect, but my sister has betrayed us. She has done something bad and she won’t even admit that she did something bad, and she won’t tell us anything so we can fix it. “Are they yelling?”

“They asked for some family privacy,” says Ava with a slight smile, “so I think it’s less business and more personal now. I asked if you should go back in but I think they want to talk to her alone for a minute now.”

“Is she yelling?” I ask again, and Ava laughs, taking another sip of her beer. “Your mom? Yeah.”

I peer at her. She notices. “What now?”

“I don’t know,” I say. The night is warm and it’s nice to be sitting out here with her, like this, if I was able to forget the context of the situation. “You…you’re working so much now, and you’re working with my mom, and you’re trying to figure out what to do with my sister, and we don’t get to talk a lot, but you seem like you want to talk about something.”

She smiles, and reaches out her hand, and I put mine into it. “I just, I forgot, for a while.”

“That’s okay,” I say quietly, and she smiles a little, looking out over the backyard again. The sun is setting in the distance, behind the trees, and the sky above us is pink and orange. I tilt my head back and look straight up, and just in front of the house I can see a star, twinkling in the slowly darkening sky.

“When I was in the hospital,” Ava says finally, her fingers interlacing between mine.

I look at her again, and ask, “The first time?”

She laughs slightly. “No, the second time. When I left you guys for a few days.”

“Ah, yes. I remember.”

She rubs her eye with her other hand. “My mother had them test me for…”

She trails off, and I raise my eyebrows. She says, “Um,” playing with my fingers, and then, “I can…get…pregnant. Which means it was just Keol who...couldn’t. He was only twenty-four, but for some reason the issue might have started early for him.”

“Oh,” I say softly. “Um…”

“No, I’m not,” she says before I have to ask. “Trust me, we would’ve known by now, and I wouldn’t be having this drink. But I could, if I wanted to.”

“Do you want to?”

“Not really,” she answers, letting go of my hand to pick up her beer and take a sip. She stares out to the sunset. “Not yet, I don’t think.”

“Only got a few years left,” I say quietly, and she smiles slightly. “We have more important things to worry about.”

Yes, we do. I look back over my shoulder to the doors, and I see that the dining room is now empty. Ava follows my eyes, and then rubs her face and stands up. She picks up her laptop and brings it back inside, and I follow. She sits down at the table, and Taymer peeks his head in from the kitchen. There are a few plates left on the table, and now that the arguing Ahmans are cleared out he comes in to take them.

“You don’t have to do that,” says Ava, and he shrugs. “I don’t mind.”

“You sound like Bayan,” she murmurs, opening her laptop, and I smile a bit, biting my lip. She doesn’t look up, just says, “Stop doing that.”

Taymer looks up in slight surprise, and she glances at him. “Not you.”

“Me?” I say, also surprised, and she nods. “Yeah, you, stop doing that with your lip, it makes you bleed.”

I make a face. Taymer smiles a bit, taking the dishes out into the kitchen, and she glances up at the door as it closes, and then at me. “What?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

She twists her mouth, looking after Taymer again, and I say, “He likes you.”

“Does he.”

“Well, he doesn’t hate you.”

“Yeah,” she mutters. “That’s not the same thing.”

“He’s not afraid of you,” I say, and finally she looks at me again. I shrug. She smiles despite herself, shaking her head. “I am looking for his brother. But he doesn’t know the name of the agency he was at, or when they got there. He doesn’t even know if they have the same father.”

“It’s okay, Ava,” I say softly. “You’ve been thinking about a lot lately.”

“I’ve been thinking about Julian,” she murmurs, and I nod. “He’s safe. You can only think about one thing at a time or else you’ll drive yourself mad trying to do everything.”

She doesn’t answer, fiddling with the ring on her thumb, and I reach out and still her hands. “You’re doing well, you know, everything that you and Sloan have been working on. You knew it was going to take some time.”

“I know,” she says softly. “I just.”

She looks away from me, her fingers still in mine, and I can feel them tense slightly. Finally she says, “It would just be so much easier, if he were still here.”

My thumb falls on Keol’s ring, and she presses her lips together, and then bites her lip. I squeeze her hand. “Don’t do that.”

She laughs despite herself, looking away with a sigh, and then Taymer comes in to collect a few more plates. She sniffles, and he looks at her, and then Nua comes in from the other side. “Hey, Penny’s looking for you, the show’s about to start.”

“Oh,” she says, wiping her eyes. “I forgot about the show.”

“No you didn’t,” says Nua as she stands, closing her laptop, and she laughs, turning to him. “No, I didn’t, I’ve been thinking about it all day.”

He grins, taking her hand, and pulls her out. Taymer is just watching with some plates in his hand, and I look at him. “Need any help?”

“No,” he says after a moment, looking at me. “Go be with your wife.”

I smile, and so does he, and we part ways.