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“I know. I’m trying to keep it going for as long as I can, though…” I trail off but look at my sister. If there’s anyone I can say this to and not be totally judged, it’s my sister. “I secretly hoped I’d be too angelic to do something human like this.”
“Then stop, Cal. You’re a good mom either way.”
“Thanks. I’m fine though and feel lucky I even get to complain about it.”
“That’s a good way to look at a lot of motherhood, actually.” She picks up the stuffed bunny Penny just threw.
“What happened, Abby?” I ask.
“I was having lunch with Mom and—The Martins—and Scott and I got into a fight. We were having lunch downtown and it was so embarrassing.” She shakes her head and her eyes start to fill with tears. “He got mad that I posted a picture of us on Facebook. This one.” She picks her phone up out of her designer diaper bag and shows me a photo she posted of us at my baby shower. I’m wearing that ridiculously girly dress Eliza picked out. Abby, Penny, and I are standing by the balloon arch in the foyer. Abby has one hand on my stomach and we’re both beaming.
“That’s a nice picture.”
“Right? The caption set him off.” She rolls her eyes. “I put that I couldn’t wait to become an aunt.”
“I don’t see what’s wrong with that,” I say and then realize why that pissed Scott off. “Is he back to pretending I’m off in Africa or something?” It’s still weird to watch how William, Nancy, and Scott keep up the narrative that I’m part of the family.
“He’s made up so many stories I honestly don’t even know at this point,” she says and sighs. “From there, Dad—I mean William—agreed with Scott that I shouldn’t have posted anything that has to do with you, and it just escalated from there and the next thing I know, they’re yelling at me for voting against the Vampire Exclusion Act and calling me an anti-breather.”
“Anti-breather? That’s what they’re calling people who support vampire rights now?” I let out a snort of laughter. “God, that’s lame.”
“I know, right? It got really ugly fast and everything from the past was brought up and I’m basically the shame of the family now and the reason Scott was down election points.”
“I can call myself Callie Martin and reclaim the shame,” I offer and Abby laughs.
“Nah. You’re busy bringing shame to the archangels now.”
We both laugh and she wipes her eyes. “It sounds so trivial to be this upset when you just killed a demon.”
“It’s not trivial. Trust me, I know how Scott and William can get under your skin and will push your buttons just to make you hurt. They had no reason to act like that and I’m sorry you have to deal with them.”
“Thanks. Then William said they wouldn’t watch Penny anymore if I’m not willing to be more supportive of the family, and I looked at Mom, waiting for her to say it’s not fair to punish her grandchild but she did nothing.” Abby’s voice breaks and she tips her head down, tears splattering into her lap. “Like how she did nothing when William sold you. Like how I did nothing.”
“Hey.” I put my hand on her arm. “Don’t you dare blame yourself for that anymore. We were kids.”
“I know. The final straw was when Scott said the reason I haven’t been able to get pregnant this time around was because God was punishing me. They’re fucking nuts, Callie.”
“Yeah. They are.”
“Anyway, I grabbed Penny before our food even came and got in my car and just started driving.”
“You know you’re welcome here anytime.” I look into Abby’s eyes. “You’re my sister. Always and forever and I’m glad to have you.”
“I’m glad to have you, too.”
“So, you didn’t eat lunch yet either?” I ask and roll my neck, feeling a cramp form between my shoulder blades again. “I’m starving.”
“I had a handful of goldfish from Penny’s snack up on the way here,” she says. “Do you want me to make you something? I did crash your day.”
“You didn’t,” I say again, though a sense of urgency starts to make me feel anxious. How much longer can Lucas stay with me? I want to put my arms around him, holding so tight Osiris can’t bring him back to the Underworld. “Though I will say your timing was either really good or really bad. Good in the fact that we had already gotten the demon, though if you were driving fast enough you probably could have made it through the warding in time.”
“You live an entirely different lifestyle than I do.”
“That’s for sure. And we can go into the kitchen and see what I have. It’s been a while since I’ve last been to the grocery store. I honestly can’t remember the last time I went.”
“Newborns do that to you.”
“Yeah,” I agree. It wasn’t Juliet that kept me from leaving the house, though.”
