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“She’s asleep.”
“I need to see her.”
“It’s the middle of the night. You need to go home.”
“I have to talk to her.”
“You can talk to her in the morning.”
“Is she all right?”
“She will be.”
“She hates me.”
“She doesn’t hate you.”
“I love her so much.”
“I know you do.”
“I’ve made such a mess.”
“Nothing that can’t be undone.”
He shakes his head. “Except I don’t know what to do.”
“You’ll figure it out.”
His eyes plead with hers. “Can’t you just tell me?”
Maggie almost smiles. “I think you already know.” She stands up. “Now go home. Get some sleep.”
He wipes his eyes, swallows one last sob, then pushes himself to his feet. “Okay. Sorry that I woke you up.”
“Get some sleep,” Maggie says again, watching him walk away, grateful that Heidi seems to have slept through this latest disturbance. Only after she sees Aiden disappear inside his house and close the door behind him does she follow suit.
Erin is standing at the top of the stairs. “What are you doing?” she asks as Maggie is resetting the alarm.
“I thought I heard something, so I…”
Erin shakes her head, rolls her eyes, and returns to her room before Maggie can finish.
“That’s my girl,” Maggie says, proceeding up the stairs and down the hall, fatigue clinging to her every step like a dead weight. What a night! All she wants now is to crawl beneath her covers and sleep till morning.
“Don’t move!” a voice orders as she reaches her bedroom. “Hands in the air.”
“Oh my God!”
Maggie slowly reaches behind her to flip on the overhead light. What she sees sends shivers from the top of her head to the bottoms of her feet, as if she has just stepped on a live wire.
Leo is sitting in the middle of the bed, giggling, the drawer to the nightstand open, his stuffed Mario in one hand, his mother’s Glock 19 in the other.
