Page 114 of Keeping Sarah

“Me,” I said with a smile. “I’ve gotten some upgrades since you saw me last.”

Once Elizabeth and Jenny had finally settled down, she came to me and hugged me, too. I cried and tried to keep my shit together, and my hands in the liquid. “If I try to hug you back, Mom, it might break the connection, and we have so much to tell you before we sever our link.”

“I understand,” she said. “I’m just so happy to see all three of you together.”

When she released me, the four of us had a very long talk. Elizabeth was able to get the closure she needed, and their conversation ended with Mom weeping and telling her she knew she’d leaned too hard on her for all those years, but she hadn’t known hownotto. They both understood where the other was coming from, and my older sister smiled in a way I had never seen her smile. Unburdened and content.

Mom cried when my sisters admitted to seeing the ghosts, too. She had never suspected it of them. She confessed to checking in on us since her death, and she was glad that I was flourishing on Halla, because I was never good at living on Earth.

She declared, “You have too much of your father in you.”

I laughed, because now I knew who my true father was. “Yeah, probably.” Then I took a deep fortifying breath and said,“Jenny and Elizabeth need to know about that, too, and I haven’t told them.”

“Oh.” She stared down at her clasped hands for a moment, before glancing back at my sisters a bit nervously. “Well, I guess since you’re on Halla, you knowsomethings already. But if Sarah hasn’t told you—"

“Is our father Ladrian?” Jenny asked.

I was shocked she had guessed it, but Elizabeth laughed like our sister had just told a joke, until she saw my serious expression. Then she held a hand to her mouth and gasped, her eyes huge. “No…that’s not…that’s not possible. Right, Mom?”

But Mom said, “Jenny is right, Lizzy. You all three are half-Ladrian.”

Elizabeth went silent, her expression stunned.

Mother went on. “Your father is Volatile Bateen—"

Jenny stiffened at the name, considering the horror stories she’d already heard about Justice Bateen. “We’re related to the asshole on Orhon?”

“Yes,” I said. “Our father, Volatile, is his brother.”

A thoughtful look passed over Jenny’s features. “Which makes Silence our cousin?”

“Yes,” I confirmed.

Confusion marred Elizabeth’s brows. “But why don’t we look Ladrian?”

“That’s not how it works,” I explained, having learned the answer to that question during my time on the planet. “According to everyone I’ve spoken with on the subject, our genetics don’t mix all that well, so babies come out looking like their mom, because that’s who they are exposed to longest.”

“Oh.” Elizabeth went back to being quiet, and I wasn’t sure how to interpret that. Good or bad, she was lost in her thoughts.

Jenny clasped her hands to her chest, her eyes bright and happy. “So, we have way more family than we ever dreamed of?”

I nodded, and I couldn’t ask for a better segue for the news I needed to share with all of them. “And we’re about to have more.”

“How do you mean?” Mom asked.

I gave them all a sheepish smile. “I’m pregnant.”

Elizabeth broke her silence to exclaim, “What!”

Jenny beamed. “Oh my god, I’m going to be an aunt!” She tried to strangle me with an excited bear hug after that, while I did my best not to lose our connection with our mother.

Mom joined her, wrapping me in a warm, diaphanous embrace. I stared at Elizabeth over her shoulder, and when my grinning big sister finally joined the group, clasping us tight in acceptance, I started to cry. Unable to keep my hands on the alter, I hugged them back. Then, I realized what I had done.

But Mom was still there. I stepped back and looked at her in shock. “You’re still here.”

She appeared just as surprised. “You don’t need to keep the connection with the altar?”

“I…I guess not.” I laughed and shook my head. “I had no idea.”

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