The room around us came back as people began moving about.
“How about the two of us go in the living room and talk a little?” I asked.
“But aren’t you going to get my mom?”
I looked at Reid and Mason, who both nodded my way. “I am, and I have help getting a plane ready. Maybe I can answer some of your questions and you can answer mine?”
Ruby looked across the table at Araneae. “Will I be staying with you?”
Araneae nodded. “I’d like that. I usually leave for work, but as luck would have it, we ladies are all staying home. I’ll be here with you.”
“I’m usually here,” Lorna volunteered. “Every day. You won’t be alone.”
“Can we leave?” Ruby asked. “This apartment? Can we get out of here?”
It was Araneae who answered. “I’ll tell you something that took me a long time to realize.” She lowered her voice. “And something I still won’t admit to my husband, so don’t tell him.”
Ruby peered sideways toward Sparrow whose stern expression had cracked to a smirk.
“This place isn’t so bad. It’s like we’re invisible to others. No one can get to us. Yes, it can be irritating to feel trapped, but having friends with you makes it a lot better.” She looked at Lorna and Laurel who were standing near the kitchen’s island. “And we always know that it won’t be forever.” She lifted her chin toward me. “Patrick and the others will make sure your mom is safe and bring her here. Then the future is up to the two of you. Right now, if you were my daughter, I’d want to know that you were as safe as possible. Don’t you think that your mom wants the same thing?”
Ruby turned to me. “Okay, we can talk for a little while. I really want my mom.”
The smile returned to my face. “I do too.” I reached for my coffee mug. “Do you drink coffee?”
She shook her head and scrunched her nose. “No, it smells disgusting. I like hot chocolate.”
“Coming right up,” Lorna called as Ruby and I moved toward the archway.
My daughter walked ahead toward Araneae and Sparrow’s living room.
“Thank you,” I whispered to Araneae.
“Give her time. She has a lot to process.”
“So do I.”
Ruby and I settled on a sofa that faced the tall windows looking out onto Lake Michigan. Wisps of snow spun near the windows as large chunks of ice gathered in the distance near the lake’s shore. The blue sky above was dotted with gray clouds as if threatening a new accumulation of snow.
“Here you go,” Lorna said as she sat a mug of steaming hot chocolate on the table before us. “Be careful. It’s hot.”
“Thanks, Lorna,” I said.
“Thank you,” Ruby added. “Misfits?”
Lorna gave her a bright smile, her vibrant red hair swinging in a ponytail as she turned to go back to the kitchen.
“These are my friends, Ruby. We support one another. I’m sure it’s how it’s been where you have been living.”
Ruby shrugged as she looked out the windows. “I’ve known most of my classmates for a long time.”
“Your school.” I was thinking of the bratva. “I’m sorry if you miss it. Right now, it’s better for you to stay here.”
“How could you be married to my mom without me ever knowing?”
“After we lost track of one another, we both made assumptions. I was led to believe your mom was deceased, and no, I was never made aware that she was pregnant.”
“So you knew Cindy?”
I tried to think back. “Cindy?”
“My middle name. It’s the only friend my mother ever mentioned. They were friends before I was born.”
“Someone at Ivanov’s?”
“No,” she said, reaching for her mug. “I think it was before she met him.”
“Before?” There was so much I didn’t know. “I don’t recall anyone we knew with that name. Whoever she was, your mom must have cared about her to give you her name.”
“That’s what she said.”
Madeline
“Excuse me?” I asked, staring up at Marion’s blue eyes.
Instead of responding about my marital status, he tilted his head and narrowed his gaze. “Ruby’s location is unverified, and yet you’re sitting up most of the night lamenting a recent transaction.”
“I’m worried about my daughter. I’m baffled by the plan you and Andros think you’ve secured.” My palms slapped my thighs below the robe. “I’m in shock.” With each sentence my volume rose. “I’m trying to comprehend the incomprehensible, and it’s not computing.”
Stepping around the chair, Marion reached for my arm. “Madeline, you must lower