Dad pays for the food, and we all drive back home. When we get inside, we notice Loki has already consecrated his new litter box with a fresh dump. He hasn’t even bothered to cover it. It just sits there, in plain sight, waiting to be acknowledged.

“So this is how you’re going to play, huh, punk?” Renn side-eyes my cat, then takes the stairs two at a time to his room. “Yo, Ever, if you want me to be on litter box duty, I’m telling you now—you’re in charge of all my laundry.”

“Like it smells better than Loki’s poop!” I yell back to him, holding the banisters.

Dad asks me if I want to have a cup of tea with him on the patio. I say yes. I know what’s coming. He is going to fill me in on the big secret they’ve been keeping from me. I help him prepare the tea, and we both take it to the backyard.

My parents’ backyard is my favorite part of their house. It’s all raised flower beds with lots of vegetables and fruit, and a greenhouse where Mom used to grow eggplants and lettuce and whatnot. The backyard is small, cramped, charming, and overlooks the Pacific Ocean. My heart thuds faster when I notice the garden looks great. I had no idea Dad had a green thumb.

We sit on two patio chairs and look at the ocean peeking through our brown fence.

Dad takes a deep breath. “You haven’t been here for six years. A lot has changed. I know you’ve changed as a person. And . . . well, so did we.”

I take a sip of my peppermint tea. So far, he is not telling me anything I don’t know, but I have a feeling that’s about to change soon.

“Yes,” I say. “Trauma and tragedy change people. I wasn’t expecting to come back and find you two in the same state I left you.”

“Were you planning on coming back at all?” he asks.

“Of course.”

“Then why did you leave?” he asks, instead of soldiering through with his mysterious news.

“Why?” I repeat dumbly. I’ve been focusing on Dom’s death, and then the mess I’ve created with Joe, so much that I’ve hardly given some thought to the fact that my family would want answers. I bailed on them. They deserve an explanation.