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“The treatments are going well,” Sydney quickly added. “I mean, he’s lucky enough to be able to afford all the latest innovations for his condition, but they’re still not easy on him. At first, I tried to do the whole ‘be strong for him’ thing, but I broke when I caught him crying while looking at one of the ultrasounds. So, I stopped hiding, and it didn’t stop me from being strong for him. In fact, I feel stronger. I mean, there’s a reason the body emotes, right? What good is bottling up what it wants us to release? Even if it’s severe anxiety that’s highly justified given the situation.”
Ayesha reached across the table and took her hand. “Tell me what you need.”
“Honestly, I just need you. I miss my friend.”
“Even if she’s crazy?”
“Specifically because she’s crazy. Can you imagine? Someone with nothing wrong with them? I’d shit my pants.”
They laughed.
“Ma?”
Ayesha’s head popped up. That sounded like Josiah, but Josiah was at school. How far into her delusions had she fallen that she’d yet to come out of them?
“Ma?”
She and Sydney looked at each other.
ItwasJosiah.
And it sounded like he was crying.
Suddenly, an arm wrapped around her neck. Next to her, the same happened to Sydney. At least a dozen masked men descended on the house, and if they’d come looking for her, they knew enough about either Joel or the entire group to know they couldn’t come empty-handed.
Only one person could have warned them. Only one person, who’d been following her every move, could have led them to her.
Josiah’s shadow moved down the stairs, and her heart dropped into her stomach when she saw he wasn’t alone.
A familiar-shaped object appeared to be up near the region of his precious head. Then Josiah’s face appeared, and it had been years since she’d seen him look so much like a little boy. Like he was only a year or two older than Theo.
If she followed Theo’s drawings, this short, wiry man without a cigarette in his mouth wasn’t “Mr. Veeny,” but it didn’t matter. This man had a gun to the back of her son’s head and wore a smile on his face that she wanted to wipe away with a six-inch blade.
She kept her voice level. “Baby, why aren’t you at school?”
He sniffed. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. Are you feeling sick?”
“I left early. I called Aunt Larke and told her I wasn’t feeling well but couldn’t reach you or Joel. She said Uncle Dez would come get me, but I told her I was already on the train.”
“Why’d you leave early?”
“Because I wanted to come to the house to look for something. I thought I had it, but when I couldn’t find it, I figured I must not have packed it. It’s this bracelet I made. It’s…stupid.”
They’d recently agreed to let Malia visit when school was out, and she was certain the bracelet had something to do with Josiah’s trip back to the house. School wouldn’t be out for a few months, which meant he could have waited, but she had to remember how old he was and who the gift was for.
“What do you want?” she asked the man. “Whatever it is, I’ll give it to you. Just please let him go.”
The man smirked. “I don’t want anything. I’m waiting.”
“For what?”
“A friend. He’ll be here soon.”
“You mean Lavigne?”
The man’s smug expression momentarily slipped.
