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“Yes, I hoped the circumstances had changed so he could make the journey with you.” Mum tilts her head, and her eyes fail to hide the disappointment behind them.
Maybe my stoic expression needs work because Faith is out of her chair, arms outstretched to take Rose from Mum. “Eden is looking tired. I think she should feed Rose and then take a nap.”
Faith holds Rose close to her chest and waits for me to stand.
“If I’m still asleep in two hours, please wake me. Otherwise, I won’t be able to sleep tonight.”
“Honey, you might sleep through.”
“Mum, she has to feed Rose.”
“Oh, of course. Well, if you need help, just wake me.”
Faith chuckles low.
The moment we get to my room, she closes the door behind us. “What’s Mum going to do? Help Rose attach to your breast?” She rolls her eyes. “She never offered to help me during the night. Not even with James.”
“I guess she thought you had Jake to help you,” I murmur with fatigue setting into every crevice of my body.
“And you should have Samuel here to help you.” She raises one eyebrow. “So when—”
“Not now, Faith.” I shake my head. “I’ll tell you about it tomorrow.”
Faith sits quietly on my bed while I settle into the pale-pink faux-leather armchair in the corner of the room.
“You have both made a beautiful baby,” she tells me genuinely.
“Thank you.” I stroke the fine layer of fair hair on Rose’s crown. “We think so too.”
“Which is why I don’t get why he didn’t return with you.”
I close my eyes momentarily and inhale a deep breath. “I’m struggling.” I meet her gaze, and the moment her understanding sets in, it triggers tears to my eyes. “I begged him to come with me. But he promised he’d come as soon as he ties up a few things. And one of those things…” I say before she interrupts, “… is eating away at my ability to stay strong. If Dad knew, then he’d have reason to worry.”
“What? Tell me,” she demands with her serious gaze. The one I’m sure she uses in a court of law.
“It has to do with the illegal mines. Some groups are seeking new sites close to the Ularan community. Samuel is doing all he can so their safety isn’t threatened.”
“Bloody hell.” Her face pales. “Eden. I have been reading up on these mines because I was tracking what was happening in Venezuela.
Of course, she was.
“I never filled Dad in, but I knew it wasn’t good. What’s happening to the land and the Amazon rainforest is shocking. The damage they are doing is just heartbreaking. They are destroying not only the flora and fauna but poisoning the waters with gold and mercury. The Ularans’ future and that of many tribes in the Amazon looks bleak.”
“I know.” I pull a face to stop myself from bursting into tears.
“Oh, honey. Here, let me take Rose and burp her.”
“Thank you.” Wiping my eyes, I try to pull myself together so I don’t fall into a blubbering heap. “Samuel thinks the Ularans are his responsibility, so he’ll do anything to keep them safe.”
“But they’ve survived hundreds of years before he began living with them.”
“Ugh. Yes, but he’s a loyalist, and the reason he remained there stems back to honoring someone he knew in school and college after she died.”
“Honor? How is living primitively honoring someone?”
I focus on how Faith rolls the cup of her hand in small circles over Rose’s back. Her tiny face falls to the side with her chin supported in Faith’s other hand. She makes motherhood look easy while I’m still fumbling my way through the first few weeks of Rose’s life.
“She asked him to be a better person and to do something worthwhile in the world where he didn’t achieve the accolades. To do something purely for the good and not for the benefit.”
