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"How does Jack feel about leaving his mother and family behind?" I asked He had never ain, neither had Mae, and they were incredibly important to her

"He severed all contact with her after he turned," Mae said "He’d never been that close to her anyway She left when he was young, taking only his sister with her, and his father raised him From what I understand, his father wasn’t a very nice ot cancer, and his mother was forced to take him back in Truthfully, I think he was rather happy that he has an excuse not to see her"

"So why did you all stay here for so long?" I asked, even though I thought I knew the answer

"I refused to go," Mae said si restless Jack has never lived anywhere else Peter will go stay other places, but he’s always been more of a drifter In a few years, I’ll have no choice but to move, and I suppose it will be better for hter this hile she’s still vibrant"

"Where will you move?" I asked

"I’o, but there has been soland since that’s where both Ezra and I were born, and I haven’t been back since I was sixteen" She turned her serious gaze on , and on’t come back for another fifty years or more We may not even come back to America for ," I said Moving to another country sounded ridiculously exciting I didn’t knohy she made it sound like a threat

"You will not be able to see your brother again," Mae explained softly "Even if we stayed around here, the best you could hope for is watching hirow old from afar Even as much as I’ve watched my own family, I never interacted with theain"

"But…" I trailed off, trying to think of an argument that would win her over "But he’s met you all! And why can’t I just tell him what you are? What I’ll be? He’d understand And he wouldn’t tell anyone"

"Telling huravely "If you decided not to turn, or if we’d never even offered it to you, can you iine how you would feel? In a year or te just up and leave you behind Knoe are, knowing that we exist

"Every time you’re enamored with a boy, you’ll wonder if it’s just because he’s a vae, and you’ll wonder what it would’ve been like to stay young forever And you’ll wonder if you just made it all up, if you’re insane"

"But you think it would be better for Milo to think that I had been ?" I asked her incredulously "That’s the better alternative?"