Not. My. Mom.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Just as I used to be able to feel Leo like a fucking aura surrounding me, I can feel this little boy. He calls to me. Could he be… No. He couldn't.
But then I remember Leo's last letter.I've been keeping a secret.
Lynn wheels Rune away, and I feel like I might faint. Okay, I fucking need that EKG stat! God, can anyone fucking hear me? I’m freaking the fuck out right now.
Calm, Everett. You don’t know anything. It could be a giant fucking coincidence. Fate playing a cruel trick on you.
“Cole, is it? Where is Rune’s mom?”
“God, she is going to fucking kill me! That boy right there is her world—no, her fucking universe—and he just got hurt while I was driving! She is never going to let me see him again. I can’t not see my baby RuRu—”
I do not have the patience for her rambling right now. “Cole! His mom. Where is she?”
“LJ? She’s out of town. Had to go to a convention in New York. She’s trying to get a flight back right now, but she won't be home for a few hours at least.”
LJ.
Leora. Jean.
“What’s mom’s full name? Is her first name LJ?”
“Oh no, that’s just what I call her. Her name is Leo. Leo Phoenix.”
Leo. Jean. Phoenix.
She changed her fucking name.
It’s her.
But I need to know for sure. I need to see her.
Excusing myself, I go back behind the nurses’ desk, opening the Google browser on the first free computer I can find. And typeLeo Phoenix, Bostoninto the search bar.
The first thing that comes up is an article about a new coffee shop opening four years ago and all of the opening day proceeds going to Operation Underground Railroad, a nonprofit that helps child trafficking victims.
And there, in front of her shop, Henry Leo’s, standing with Auntie Cole, is my pretty bird.
She is fucking breathtaking. Still fucking breathtaking. Her curls are shorter now, smoother, but nothing else has changed. That’s my Leo. Fuck. It’s been eight years, and I finally found her. My world bursts with color once again, like it did all those years ago.
I’m fucking soaring.
Eight years.
I’m crashing.
I flip to Rune’s chart.DOB: August 8th, 2016.
He’s seven years old. Will be eight in August.
Which means she was pregnant…
“Fuck!”
Iwas finally able to get a flight home. But I’m still not getting in till nine at night—stupid weather delayed my flight.
