Page 88 of Caged Bird

We both dragged on hoodies, and when we were ready, he wrapped his fingers around mine, squeezing them reassuringly. “Let’s go get our boy back.”

I peered up at him. “Our?”

He brushed the backs of his fingers down the side of my face, sweeping back my hair. “Is that okay? I know I haven’t known him long, but that doesn’t stop me from loving him.”

It was so very okay. And I knew exactly what he meant.

I’d loved Otis from the very moment I’d felt him inside me. I hadn’t needed to see his face or hear him cry. I hadn’t neededtime. It had been instant, born from a connection of knowing he was mine. Just yesterday I’d instantly fallen in love with two little girls I’d never met, just because they were my brother’s children. Without ever meeting them, I’d known in my bones I’d lay down my life for theirs.

Just as Vincent and Ophelia were about to do for Otis.

This was what family was.

Unconditional and instant love.

My hand in his, Zane and I walked downstairs.

A hush fell over the room as we reached the last one, and everyone turned to look at us.

Nerves suddenly erupted in my belly. Augie and Ophelia and Vincent were all there, the three of them discussing something over a portable table that had been brought in and was now covered in papers, food, and somewhat more disturbingly, knives and guns. I still hated both. Hated the destruction and devastation humans could cause with one of them in their hands, but I was also no longer naïve enough not to realize that Eddie wouldn’t fight fair.

So neither could we.

My heart stuttered at the sight of Lyric’s long hair. She talked with a man I vaguely recognized, a cross tattoo taking up half his bicep, and I was about to call her name when a strangled cry came from the other side of the room.

“Fawn.”

Something inside me broke.

I would have known that voice anywhere.

I spun on my heel, spotting Eve through the crowd, desperately weaving her way between the broad-shouldered men who seemed to fill the house.

I let go of Zane and ran to the woman, the two of us colliding almost painfully in a tangle of arms and legs and tearsand excitement. She crushed me to her, hugging me so tight I couldn’t breathe.

And then she wouldn’t let me go. She cried into my shoulder until I realized it was me holding her up and not the other way around.

“It’s okay,” I whispered. “I’m okay.”

It wasn’t true. I wouldn’t be okay until I had my baby back in my arms, but Eve needed to hear it. She’d been some sort of combination of mother, sister, best friend, and boss before I’d left. And nothing had changed. I could feel it in the way she held me. The way she said my name over and over, like it was a prayer or a wish that had just come true.

She pulled back to look at me, her cheeks streaked with tears. “I’m pregnant.”

Ophelia’s head whipped around so quick. “What?”

Eve clapped her hand over her mouth. “Oh my God. That is not what I planned to say. I’ve been pacing around all day, ever since Augie called me, practicing what I was going to say to you. I had a whole speech prepared! And then I just go and make it all about me.”

But it was the best thing she could have said. I put my hand on her belly, knowing that even after five years apart she wouldn’t mind. “You’re pregnant? Is this your first?”

I hated that I didn’t know what had happened to her in the years we’d been apart. It didn’t feel right, and yet it was the reality we had.

She nodded. “We’ve been trying. But we just had another round of IVF and we only just got the news yesterday…” She swallowed hard. “And now it feels like I know why. Like all this time, this baby was just waiting for you to come home.”

The lump that rose in my throat nearly choked me, and I hugged Eve tight, Ophelia’s arms coming around us, and thenLyric’s, Augie’s, and eventually Boston laughed when Eve waved him over to join the huddle.

Something broken inside me knit itself back together. These people weren’t my blood, but they were the family I’d once chosen for myself. And they were still here, ready to welcome me home.

Vincent cleared his throat. “I’m sorry to break up the reunion. I know you’ve waited a long time for it. But we need to do this. We have some new information…”

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