Anna parked the Mustang in the garage and turned off the engine, but neither Emmaline nor her chauffeur moved to get out of Mom’s car. Emmaline didn’t move because she didn’t want to go into the empty townhouse. It was just another reminder that Mom was still not back from talking to General Rikker. She and Eric had been gone a long time. It was well after dinner. And Emmaline had a terrible fear that her mother wouldn’t be back at all.

  Emmaline wasn’t sure of Anna’s excuse for just sitting there, but the woman had been quiet since they’d left the hospital. She seemed to be all right, making small talk while she and Emmaline passed the rest of the day by Dad’s side, but now it was like a black mood had settled on the woman.

  Finally, Emmaline dared to ask the question that had been on her mind all day. “Do you hate us now?”

  Anna turned her head and blinked at Emmaline with a startled look. “What?”

  Emmaline shrugged. “You know, because we are different, and well, all the lying. Now that you know the truth, maybe you won’t want anything to do with us, especially with Michael gone.”

  Anna turned back to the front and grasped the steering wheel in front of her. It was like she was using it as something to prop her up.

  “I don’t hate you, Emmaline. I never could. Am I angry? Yes. But I’m more angry that Michael is gone and the life we had planned is gone too. And I’m hurt that your parents didn’t trust me enough to tell me the truth, especially when it became clear Michael and I were getting serious and I was going to be a part of the family someday. But mostly, I’m just sad for your mother.”

  Emmaline was surprised by this last comment. “Why?”

  “Because she lost her son, and she may have lost her husband too. All on the same day. After doing everything she could to protect her son, even leaving behind everything she knew and all the people she loved, coming to a strange new place, and living in fear for years that they might be found out or tracked down by the Ethians, even after all that, she still lost her child. Can you imagine how that must feel?”

  Emmaline blinked at Anna, stunned and more than a little ashamed. All this time Em had been thinking about how devastatingly awful it was to lose her brother and maybe even her father. Not once had she thought about what Mom might be going through. What her parents had been through before coming to Earth or the years spent in terror of the possibility of being discovered not just by the Ethians, but those on Earth as well.

  “I guess I never thought about it,” Emmaline whispered.

  “I can’t stop thinking about it,” Anna leaned her head against the headrest. “I also can’t stop thinking about Michael and what he must be going through right now. He must be going out of his mind wondering how we are all doing and upset about leaving us like he did. I wish I could at least talk to him. Tell him I understand. I might not like it, but I get why he did what he did. And I’m kind of proud of him too.”

  “Really? Why?” Emmaline asked, puzzled about that last part.

  “Because he knew what he was doing when he went after Arnold. He knew what it would cost him and did it anyway, even after he knew everything and was probably still very angry at his parents for keeping the truth from him. Michael still stepped up and did a very hard thing to protect someone he loved.”

  “Yeah, I suppose.” Emmaline said halfheartedly. “I mean, I am glad he saved Dad and all that, because by what Mom said about what the Ethians were going to do to him, it would have been way worse than being in a hospital bed unconscious. I just wish I knew how he got like that? Did Dad really try to use his Mind Bender thing on Michael again?”

  Anna nodded. “I think it’s a safe bet he did. It’s clear your dad would do anything to save Michael, even use his ability on him repeatedly. But I think this time Michael fought back. Maybe Arnold wasn’t expecting that, and it caused him to lose his concentration.”

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  Emmaline looked out her window at the shelves in the garage. Everything was stowed in its proper place. All the organizer drawers were tightly shut, with labels on the front declaring their contents. The toolboxes were firmly closed, but carefully laid out so everything could be found in short order. Dad was always so meticulous, so careful about everything he did. It was hard to imagine him losing anything, let alone his concentration. Obviously, something had gone wrong when he’d used his ability, otherwise he wouldn’t be where he was. Then another thought occurred to her, and it startled her to think it.

  “Maybe it’s a good thing whatever happened to Dad happened?” Emmaline mused out loud. “Maybe if it hadn’t, things would have turned out a lot different. And maybe in a much worse way.”

  And then, a whole kaleidoscope of possibilities opened up for her. Dad being taken by the Ethians besides Michael, and then Michael forever hating himself for letting it happen. Michael and Dad both being taken. Or maybe Michael, Dad, Mom, and Emmaline being whisked away? And what if the Ethians hadn’t stopped there? What if they had struck out against Earth for hiding her parents, or in an attempt to find Mom?

  Emmaline shivered, realizing that even though things were bad, they could have turned out worse. And maybe the Ethians weren’t gone forever. Maybe they would come back someday for Dad and Mom?

  “I guess we will never know,” Anna said as she brought Emmaline out of her mental spiral of doom.

  “Yeah, I guess not,” she whispered at the window, then she turned to Anna and asked a question she suddenly very much wanted to know the answer to. “So are you saying you forgive Mom and Dad?”

  Anna’s fingers flexed on the steering wheel, and she took a deep breath before answering. “Forgive is a strong word. I’m saying I understand why they did what they did, but I’m still working on the forgiving part and the trusting part too. In fact, I’m not sure I’ll be able to trust anything your mother says for quite some time, if ever.”

  “You think she’s still lying?”

  “I think that she’s spent twenty years lying, and that’s not something you can just turn around. It becomes a habit. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least to discover that she’s still holding back information.”

  Emmaline thought about that for a minute. Could she ever really trust Mom again, or even Dad for that matter? And was Mom still holding back? That thought didn’t sit well with Emmaline at all.

  “Well, let’s go inside,” Anna said as she took the keys out of the ignition and reached for her purse. “You did text your mom to let her know we were coming back here?

  “Yeah,” Emmaline looked down at her phone. There was no response to the text she’d sent as they were leaving the hospital. In fact, it didn’t look like Mom had even read her message yet. Emmaline tried not to think too hard about that. “But she hasn’t responded yet.”

  “Well, I’m, going to stick around until we know what’s going on.”

  Emmaline had already told Anna that Mom was confessing everything to General Rikker, so they both knew it could be a while until she came home. If she was even allowed to come home. Though at the very least, Eric should be coming back. Wouldn’t he?

  “Thanks, Anna, I appreciate it.” Emmaline didn’t want to be alone.

  Technically, she could have stayed at the house by herself. She’d done it before when Mom and Dad had date night and Michael was off visiting Anna. It had been fun to have the house to herself and do what she wanted without anyone getting on her case, but now the idea of being alone in the house terrified her.

  The woman smiled at Em as she opened her door and got out. “Not a problem. We can do a movie if you want?”

  Emmaline got out on her side and moved toward the kitchen door. “Actually, I’m kind of tired. I think I’ll go upstairs if you don’t mind.”

  “That’s fine,” Anna said as she unlocked the door with Mom’s keys. She opened it, but didn’t go through. “Actually, do you think anyone would mind if I stayed in Michael’s room tonight?”

  Emmaline paused to think about it for a moment. “I doubt it, but are you sure you are going to be okay doing that?” She wasn’t sure she could go into her brother’s room right now. It would be too hard.

  Anna sighed and finally stepped into the kitchen. “I don’t know. I just feel like I need to be close to him, and that’s the only way I think of right now. But if it gets to be too much, I’ll go hang out in the living room.”

  “I think it will be fine,” Emmaline said, turning on the light to the kitchen. This place was usually bustling with people coming and going, even later in the evening. It felt weird for everything to be so quiet.

  Emmaline and Anna had eaten dinner at the hospital cafeteria, but Em decided to grab a bag of Doritos on the way up to her room. She entered, tossed her coat on the bed and hung her purse up on a hook on her wall. As she did, she saw the top of Mom’s device peeking out of her purse. Emmaline had noticed Mom left it behind and stuck it in her purse before leaving Dad’s room. Curiosity caused her to pull it out now.