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After sliding into the passenger seat, I looked back at Ana, who kicked her legs back and forth the way she always did when something was bothering her. Like Kai had said she would be, she was wide awake now.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“To Imani’s house.”
She stayed quiet for a long time. “What happened to Mama?”
My entire body tensed, and I sat back in my seat and glanced over at Kai. I didn’t know what to say to children, especially after something like that happened, and Kai had always been more comfortable with her anyway.
“She’s …” He looked over at me, pulling off João’s street.
“She must’ve been really tired,” Ana said with a yawn.
This wasn’t our place to tell her that her mother had died. Hell, how the fuck did you tell a child that? Would she understand what happened? That her mother hadn’t wanted to live anymore, so she had ended her life?
Fuck, this was hard for me to think about, and she wasn’t even related to me.
“Yeah,” I said because Kai looked lost for words too. “We’re all tired tonight, Ana.”
“Do you think Imani’s mom has some brigadeiros? I want to make some to give to Mama when she wakes up.” Ana smiled out the foggy window, eyes lighting up at the mere thought. “They always make her happy.”
It only made me feel worse.
I didn’t know what the fuck we were going to do.
“She might have some ingredients,” Kai said, hand tightening around the steering wheel. “But how about we get some sleep first? It’s really late at night. Everyone is either sleeping still or just waking up for school and work.”
“What time do I go to school?” she asked.
“You’re staying home,” I said.
Throughout the entire car ride, Ana continued to ask questions that neither of us could answer honestly. When Kai finally pulled up to Imani’s house, I hurried out of the car to open the front door. Imani’s father walked into the foyer with his phone pressed to his ear.
“Hold on, sweetheart,” he said into the phone, watching us carefully.
I pressed Imani’s code into the keypad and looked over my shoulder at Kai, who had Ana in his arms, then back at her father. “Imani said that it was okay to come here. I’ll tell you everything that you want to know, but she’s safe. We need a place to crash for the night.”
“It’s six in the morning,” her father said, then looked at Ana and let out a long sigh, nodding to the stairs. “Go ahead. Her room is upstairs to the left and down the hallway. You can’t miss—”
“We know where her room is,” Kai said, walking with Ana up the stairs.
Mr. Abara raised an eyebrow and placed his phone against his ear again. “Imani is safe.”
“Is that Landon?” I heard Mrs. Abara say through the phone.
“Yes, sweetheart.”
“Let me talk to him.”
He handed the phone to me.
“Hi, Mrs. Abara.”
“What happened, Landon?” she asked, worry laced in her voice. Hospital noises echoed in the background. “Is everything okay? Imani ran out in a hurry hours ago. She looked like she was a mess.”
“Imani’s okay, but …”
“But what?”
“But João’s mother is dead.”
