felt responsible for the pain her parents had gone through. As she felt her mom—her strong mother—fall apart in her arms, Shelly knew she would have done anything to spare them this agony.
“Regina, who was at the door?” Her dad’s voice came from somewhere inside the house and then closer. “Shelly?”
She looked up from where her face had been buried in her mom’s hair and met the confused eyes of her father.
“Hey, Dad,” she said with a weak smile. A second later, he wrapped his arms around her and her mom.
“You’re back.” She heard his deep, baritone voice say near her ear.
“I am.” It was the truth and not the truth. She was back, for now, but she wouldn’t be staying. She couldn’t be away from Ra, not that she wanted to be. But she also didn’t want to be away from her parents.
It was a long while before her dad finally pulled back and just stared at her. Shelly wondered if it was the same look he’d given her when she was born. Awe mixed with wonder and hope. It made something inside of her twist and turn. She’d always known her parents loved her, but to see it so raw and powerful was gut-wrenching because it was clear that they’d both thought they’d never see her again.
A few minutes later her mom stood. Her hands moved up to Shelly’s shoulders, and she ran her eyes over her face, seeming to catalog every feature. Then one of her hands lifted, shaking as it rested against Shelly’s cheek. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again,” her mom said, confirming what Shelly had seen in her dad’s eyes. “I hoped and I prayed, but I just didn’t know.”
“I’m so sorry, Mom,” Shelly said again.
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” her mom said. “You’re here and that’s what matters.”
“Who are these people with you?” her dad asked and then added. “Tara?”
“Hey, Mr. Smith, Mrs. Smith,” her friend said in a bright yet hesitant voice.
“You’ve been missing, too,” Shelly’s mom pointed out. “Have you been with Shelly?”
“Um, well, sort of,” Tara answered.
“Mom, Dad, I have a lot I need to tell you, and these people are here to help me explain it,” she said and then blew out a breath that caused her cheeks to puff out.
Her mom stepped to the side, though the hand on her shoulder did not move. “Please, come in.”
Shelly walked in and felt the enveloping warmth and the smells so familiar to her. She had the sudden urge to run through the house squealing in delight just because she was here.
Her mom walked beside her as they headed for the living room. Shelly took a seat on the couch. As if he understood that her parents would want to be close to her, Ra gave her hand a final squeeze and then released it. He walked around the chairs that were opposite the couch and leaned back against the wall. His eyes never left her. And as usual, the intensity with which he watched her filled her with warmth, a different kind than that provided by her childhood home.
Shelly’s dad sat on her right side, and her mom took the seat to her left. Tara took one of the chairs across from them and Aviur took the one next to her while Elias took up his sentinel-like pose behind the chair where Tara sat.
“This is all going to seem very far-fetched, and, frankly, you might think that I’m crazy or on drugs, but I need you to please listen with an open mind,” Shelly said as she looked back and forth between her parents. She stood and turned to sit on the coffee table so she could see them both at the same time and not feel like she was at a tennis match trying to see their faces as she spoke.
“All right,” her dad said.
“We will try,” her mom added.
Before Shelly could get started, there was a knock on the door. Shelly’s dad looked torn between needing to answer it but wanting to stay where he could see his daughter, as if she would disappear into thin air. Which, to be fair, was completely possible with the whole portal thing.
He hurried off and was back a couple seconds later with Carol, Tara’s foster mom, right behind him.
“Where on earth have you been, child?" Carol asked as she hurried forward and took Tara in her arms, hugging her as tightly as Shelly’s mom had hugged her.