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Chapter 36
Two hours later, I was back in the hotel room, packing up my things. Although neither of us said it, following the trial, Brandon and I were both acutely feeling the need to get back to Boston. I had gone straight to the shower and started packing. Brandon had left to run a few last minute errands around the city before picking me up to leave––to go home, I realized. Something New York would never really be again.
I shoved the last of my clothes into my small suitcase and sat on top of it to close it. Just as I'd managed to get the zipper around the edge, the door to the room unlocked, and Brandon walked in.
"Hey," he said.
"Hey," I answered as I pulled my suitcase over next to his. "How did your errands go?"
"Good," he said. "And I managed to pick up a goodbye party."
He stepped aside to reveal two small children: Annabelle and Christoph.
"Skylar!" they both cried as they ran toward me, knocking me back onto the bed with the force of their hugs.
"Hi!" I squealed as I let them tackle me with kisses. "What are you guys doing here?!"
Brandon leaned against the wall, watching the scene with a wide smile. Then he walked in and sat on the bed next to us.
"I managed to sneak over to Eighty-Ninth Street after my meetings," he said as he wrestled Christoph into a half nelson and let go, much to the little boy's delight. "Janette said I could kidnap them for dinner. What do you say? Should we stay one more night?"
"I say..." I glanced between the kids. We had planned to go immediately, and I had visions of flopping on the couch in our living room and watching Amadeus. I knew Brandon was supposed to be back for a breakfast event the next day, which meant we would have to leave at some God-awful hour. But one look at my two siblings, who looked simultaneously eager and terrified, changed my mind.
I smiled. "Madame Tussaud's and Gray's Papaya?"
Although they clearly had no idea what I was talking about, both kids threw their hands in the air and cheered loudly at the proposal.
"Are you going to stay in New York now, Skylar?" Christoph asked.
I smarted. His English had already improved a lot since the last time I'd seen him in July.
"No," I said. "I don't live here anymore. Brandon and I live in Boston."
"So, you're leaving?" Annabelle asked. When I nodded, she mimicked the motion to herself. "That's okay. People leave sometimes. Even us."
I frowned. "What do you mean, honey?"
"Daddy went back to France," she said wistfully. "Maman said we will not see him for a long time. And she says after Christmas, we are going away too, to a school a long train ride from New York."
I nodded. This was the same story I had heard from Janette. The little girl shrugged, but underneath her veneer of nonchalance, I could sense a sadness, one that that was clearer on Christoph's face. Their father was gone, a criminal, and they weren't sure if he would ever be back. On top of that, their own mother couldn't bear to be around them and was shipping them off to school out of state instead of keeping them with her.
In some ways, I understood why Janette was doing what she was doing. She understood her failures as a mother, and felt her children would be better away from her cold family. But I also knew what it felt like to pushed away by her. The kids and I would always share that unique pain.
My heart squeezed, and I looked up at Brandon. As if he could read my mind, he shrugged. It was my choice, he seemed to say. Whatever I wanted to do would be fine with him.
I turned back to my half-siblings. "I want to show you something," I said.
We sat down on the couch, and I pulled out my computer. I opened a screen with Google maps, pinpointing the location of their new school.
"This is Andover Prep," I said, pointing at the green spot on the map. "Your new school, where you'll start after the holidays."
Annabelle nodded sadly. "Yes, I know. Maman showed us this same map last week. She says she is only five hours from us." She shrugged again, an incredibly Gallic gesture I recognized from when I had lived in France myself. "Our last school we had to take a plane. This is better."
"Much better," I agreed. "Did she show you this?"
I typed in the new address of the house, and connected the two locations with driving directions. I traced the thick blue line as I spoke.
"This is where Brandon and I live now," I said. "And this is where you'll be at school. We're only thirty minutes apart, see?" I squeezed both kids, who were suddenly enraptured by the screen. "That's only the length of one episode of Ninjago," I told Christoph, who immediately lit up. "So, we'll be able to see you all the time."
