“The twins are Sandy and Berry. The big one is Rowan. He’s been helping me fix up the house.”
My moms excitedly greeted the kids, making relief flood my system. I unbunched my shoulders and took a full breath for the first time since Sully had woken on the couch.
“What do you need?” Mom asked about half an hour later, after the kids felt safe enough to ask to go outside. They’d gotten along so well with both my moms, it was a massive relief forus all.
“You’re not going to tell me to turn the kids over to the authorities?”
“In that town?” Mama sounded offended. “Have you lost your head? No, we support you keeping them. You are planning on keeping them, right? They love you, Imri.”
“Of course I’m keeping them!” It was my turn for my hackles to rise. “I’d never introduce you as their grandparents if I wasn’t. That’s stupid and cruel!”
“Good. So what do you need?” Mom intervened.
“I need your witch hacker friend to make them identities,” I said to Mama. “Fake an old adoption certificate for them all going back to when Malik went into the hospice.”
“So no one knows they were alone. Right. Makes sense. I can do that. I’ll need dates and their birth names.” She was already fiddling with her phone, ready to act.
“I’ll text you that. We’ve been working with the younger ones on our story. At the minute, the story is we only came here because Malik’s estate finally transferred to me. I’ve had someone check on the house periodically, which is why it wasn’t as bad. Malik was their guardian after their mom died, until thehospice, but I agreed to take them when he got too bad. We lived not too far from you, pretty isolated. All that shit.”
“Smart. I always knew you had the brains. All perfectly plausible and giving no one reason to dig too deep will keep you all safe.”
“The documents will help.”
“They will. I’ll get on that as soon as we’re off the phone. When they are ready, we’ll come with them, help you get more of the house ready. We want to visit our grandbabies, don’t we, honey?”
I heard my mom in the background, shouting that she was already packing. “I’m canceling that hotel. That town isn’t getting a dime of our money if I can help it!”
Mama’s smile was vicious. “Damn straight!”
“You know the town probably doesn’t know about the kids, right? The clan that came here generations ago just slowly died out. The townsfolk don’t go into the woods because they probably think the ghosts of that clan are there, waiting to attack. It wouldn’t have crossed their minds that a family still lived there.”
“Maybe, but I don’t like how they treated Malik, either. They sound likebigots.”
I opened my mouth to convince her they weren’t, but stopped myself. There was no proof they weren’t. Didn’t I say to Sully they wouldn’t like me being with him because of what we were? I’d seen enough from the way they’d looked at me and in the rules they had in the town charter to make that decision for myself.
“Fair enough. You’ll have the camper, right? If we focus on it, we can get the spare room ready for you.”
“The camper will be more than fine. We don’t get to use it often enough,” Mom said, returning to her mate’s side.
“Thanks, Mom, Mama. I knew you’d know what to do.”
“You’re more than welcome, Imri.” Mama’s eyes shone with her love for me. “We don’t say this often enough, but both of us are very proud of you. Always have been, just especially today. You’ve brought so much light into our lives. I can’t wait to meet them. I’ll call when we get the documents, okay? Might take a couple of days, though. Love you.”
“Love you both, too.”
Some time later, Rowan, Sandy, and Berry joined me in the kitchen. Rowan slumped downinto the chair, his head tipped back, looking at the ceiling.
“I like our grandmas,” Sandy said confidently. He never let anything bother him.
Berry perched herself on my knee, leaning back against my chest. “Me too. Grandma Ellie said she was going to bring me a pretty dress.”
“A pretty dress for a pretty princess. That’s right.”
“Can I have wellington boots for the garden instead?” She’d learned about wellies from the TV shows about Earth One. I tried to limit their screen time because too much wasn’t good for them.
“Why not both? Grandma Farah might get you some boots.”
Sandy didn’t ask for a present, unused to the idea. He didn’t like the TV as much as Berry did.
