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"Out," he said without looking back "And I’ht, so don’t wait up"

"Jack!" I called after him, but he didn’t answer

25

Ezra buried Daisy in the backyard, under thetree After that, he decided that we’d had enough of it here and put the house up for sale

The next few days, Mae was inconsolable She moved like a zo She was pale and listless, and I’et better But no h this

Milo decided that we needed to visit our ainst it, but Milo eventually wore me down She was our mother, and she had loved us the best she could She didn’t deserve to be alone, abandoned by everyone she loved, without knohy

More than that, maybe she didn’t need to be abandoned anymore Milo wanted to come clean with her in hopes that ouldn’t have to hide from her

Before Leif came in, Milo and I sat with her alone in our old apartment, and Milo told her the whole truth About where we’d been and that ere va so cruel to her Then Leif came in, and all her defenses melted He told her she looked as beautiful as she ever did, and by the look in his eyes, I think he meant it They both cried and kissed, and after that we talked We talked for hours, having the first real open conversation we’d ever had

She cried a lot, and I’d never really seen her cry before She apologized for always running away from us, and said she was a coward Milo and I re to out run the pain from that, but she never could

When Milo and I left, Leif was still there By the way they were interacting, I doubted he’d leave any time soon They had a lot of years to catch up on

That reunionon Jack still hadn’t talked to me much since he’d been on his business trip He responded to a couple text h, in that defense, he said the trip was really busy since he was doing it all by himself, and Ezra was supposed to be the one to handle it But Ezra was busy taking care of Mae, and Peter wasin his own Peter way

I tried not to think about anything and went about putting the house in order I wasn’t sure how long it would take to sell, or where ould go once it was sold, but I wanted to be prepared

As I was going through et rid of, I opened my underwear drawer in the closet I decided I had way too many, and I picked up a handful to throay I lifted theht on the drawer

A diaift to led it fro as it spun and light shone off the diamonds