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I text my family with a group text.
Me: I think I just killed Ryan’s mom. We’re on our way to the hospital.
When we arrive, I find Ryan pacing in a hallway with Mick and his dad. Samantha is with him, and every time he stops walking, she starts to rub his arm. He lifts her fingers and pushes her away. Then he sees me.
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” I rush to say.
He wraps me up in a hug, burying my face in his chest. I look up. “I didn’t know she was allergic, I swear it. I told Samantha there were nuts in them and she just said your mom would love them.”
“I didn’t understand her signing,” Samantha protests, and then she begins to pick at her cuticles. “She’s not very good at it.”
“You’re a liar, Samantha!” Mick cries out loud as he signs it too. “You did this on purpose and you know you did!”
Her face flushes. “I did not!”
“Your left eye twitches when you lie,” Ryan tells her.
She stamps her foot. “Does not!”
“It does,” Mick says. “It always has. You’re lying now and you were lying then.” He points toward the door. “You should go.”
“I won’t.”
“Oh yes you will,” four female voices say from behind me, and I look around to find all four of my sisters, along with Emilio and Marta. “You do not want to fuck with my daughter,” Marta says, pointing a finger at Samantha. I have seen Marta get all mama-bear-like before, but I have never seen her quite so forceful. She points to the door. “Out!”
Samantha turns and runs down the hallway.
“She could have killed her,” Ryan says. His face is so pale we could light a dark room with it.
“She didn’t,” Marta says. “Your mother will be fine.”
“You don’t know that,” Ryan says.
“I do. I’m a mother, Ryan. We know everything.”
“What do we do now?” Mick asks.
“Now we wait,” Emilio says.
Everyone sits down, and Mick and Ryan don’t say a word about my sisters and my parents waiting with us.
“Do you want me to ask them to leave?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “They can stay.”
“Marta,” Emilio jokes, “I haven’t seen you be that forceful in a really long time. It’s kind of turning me on.”
“Someone had to do it,” Marta says. She points to my sisters. “Two of you are pregnant, and therefore incapable of fighting. I couldn’t let you get hurt.”
Wren freezes as Emilio looks at each of them in turn. “Wait. Two of you? What the fuck?” His eyes skip from one of us to the other. “I know Star’s pregnant, because she’s blowing up like a basketball all of a sudden.”
Star presses a hand to her belly. “I am not,” she mutters.
“Who else is it? Who’s pregnant?” Emilio demands.
Wren tentatively raises her hand. “It’s me,” she squeaks out. But Peck and Finny raise their hands too.
“Oh, shit,” I whisper.
