Page 80 of Hey, Daddy

One by one they left until Haze was alone.

The moment the last of my family filed out, he walked around the bed and straight to me.

He didn’t bother taking a seat on the side of the bed.

Instead, he hauled me into his arms, then sat where I’d once been sitting, before wrapping me up so tight that I finally felt warm.

I buried my face into his neck and said, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“We will figure out how this happened,” he promised. “They made a mistake this time. They left you behind, and we’ll piece together everything that happened. We’ll catch him.”

His assurance was enough to finally make me relax.

That was, until the doctor came in and reminded me how unsafe life was.

I wasn’t listening at first.

It took my brain a second to finally come back to the living, and when I did, I heard him say, “…it’s a benzodiazepine used to treat severe insomnia. It’s better known name is Rohypnol.”

“So he roofied her?” Dima asked.

I left my head in Haze’s neck and listened, more alarmed every second.

“Yes, and a very high amount, too. I’m honestly surprised that she’s able to sit here and hold a conversation with you all at all. Even the IV fluids we were able to pump into her wouldn’t have been enough to counteract that amount.”

He kept talking, but I let my mind wander again.

I wished I could go back to Christmas.

I loved looking at all of the trees.

Or Halloween.

Halloween was my second favorite holiday now that Maven was back with us. I loved going with her family to all the trunk o’ treats and trick o’ treating through the neighborhoods. I loved watching them get excited when they spotted some of their favorite characters outside with them.

“Mama.”

I blinked, then pulled away to see Haze staring at me with those beautiful gray eyes.

“Yeah?” I asked, mesmerized.

“You ready to go home?” he asked.

“Yes.”

So that’s what we did.

I was discharged.

I was put into Shasha’s armored tank of a vehicle, which Haze slid into beside me.

We drove to Shasha’s place, which was apparently where all the kids were dropped off for safekeeping.

When we got inside it was to see a very intense game of Go Fish going on between Desi, Brecken, and Vivi.

Vivi asked, very loudly, if her mother had any blue hippos.

I could clearly see that she hadn’t a single blue hippo in her hand.

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