Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 86126 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86126 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“Where the hell is Mom?” I asked Otto in confusion.
“She was up in Portland today,” Esther replied. “She’ll probably be here soon.”
“She’s gonna be pissed,” Otto muttered.
“She can get in line.”
“Careful,” Otto warned, his lips twitching in amusement. “She’s gonna try and move in with your ass after all this.”
“Not happening.”
He let out a huff of laughter.
Ansel began to fuss, and without delay, Esther and Otto got to their feet. It was the longest I’d been around the baby without him crying, so I didn’t blame them as they told Flora that it was time to head home.
“Love you,” Noel said as Flora leaned in for a kiss.
“Love you, too,” Flora said, going to her dad without complaint.
Otto paused and looked at Noel. “Thank you,” he said.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
His head jerked back in surprise. “For what?”
“All of it,” she ground out. “It was all my fault. Carl. I left them. I went upstairs, and I left them.”
“None of it was your fault,” Otto shot back.
“That’s not true,” Noel said sadly. She glanced at Esther.
Esther shook her head, her eyes sad. “What that man did is not your fault,” she said quietly. “And don’t you ever apologize for leaving Flora downstairs while you used yourself as bait to get that lunatic away from her.”
Noel just looked at her.
“I love you, sister,” Esther said, leaning down to kiss Noel’s cheek, then each of the girls’ heads. “I’ll call you later, okay?”
“Love you, too.”
Not long after they left, Myla and the girls left, too. They’d shown up for moral support, but had accurately read the situation and stayed out of the way. Eventually, Nova and Rumi came into the room and quietly sat down at the other end of the sectional and Bas wandered in, clearly out of things to keep himself busy.
I couldn’t seem to move beyond reaching for Noel. Running my hand through Ariel’s hair. Rearranging Diana’s blanket where it drooped over her shoulder. It was a reminder that they were right there next to me. Safe. Healthy.
“I hafta go potty,” Ariel said, her voice scratchy.
I let out a breath of relief.
“Go ahead, baby,” Noel said, lifting her arm off Ariel’s back.
“No, you go with me.”
“I can take you, Mermaid,” I said softly, leaning around Noel.
“No,” she replied, leaning into Noel. “Mama.”
“Can you take Diana?” Noel asked.
I carefully pulled the sleeping baby from her arms and nestled her against my chest.
Noel helped Ariel up, but she faltered as she got to her feet. I’d just reached out to steady her when Nova let out a small gasp.
“Noel, your feet,” she murmured, leaning forward.
There was blood where her feet had rested on the carpet. It wasn’t a lot, but it was there.
“Shit,” I muttered, glancing up at her. “Sugar, what happened?”
Noel looked down in confusion, then slowly sat back down and lifted one of her feet to examine it. The entire bottom was covered in scratches, and tiny bits of gravel were embedded in the skin.
“Damn,” Rumi murmured.
“They’re fine,” Noel said, getting carefully to her feet again. “I’m going to take Ariel to the bathroom.”
She shuffled toward the bathroom holding Ariel’s hand and I moved to stand, but I still had Diana asleep on my chest and I wasn’t sure what to do.
“I’ll grab some towels,” Nova said as she shot to her feet.
“I’ll get the first aid box,” Bas added.
“The big one from the garage,” I told him. “And the tweezers from my bathroom. Top right drawer.”
“You got it.”
“You good?” Rumi asked.
“You hear the story?” I replied, running a hand over my face. Jesus.
“Yeah, I did.” He nodded, his eyes unfocused. “She did good. Did what she had to.”
“She keeps apologizin’.”
“Which is nuts,” Rumi said quietly. “Take away the fact that she kept them here and kept them safe, she can’t control what a fuckwad lunatic is doin’…man, it wasn’t even her fault that she had any connection to that man. She sure as hell didn’t marry his son because she chose him.”
“Agreed.”
“They’ll be alright,” Rumi said with a sigh. “Give ’em some time and some love and they’ll be fine.”
“That your professional opinion, Dr. Hawthorne?”
“I prefer Dr. Rumi,” he joked. “I find it connects better with my patients.”
It took over an hour to pick every single piece of gravel out of Noel’s feet. She hadn’t just run across the gravel driveway barefoot, she’d done it fast and she’d done it carrying an extra twenty-five pounds of weight, while dragging the little girls along with her. We couldn’t even use band-aids to cover the scratches that bled because there were so many. Thankfully none of them were deep enough to need stitches, but she ended up with both feet so wrapped in gauze it looked like she was wearing socks.
My mom showed up halfway through the process, and spent her time trying to distract Ariel from staring with hollow eyes at her mom’s wounds. When we were done, she whipped us up some food.