“I want you to be nice to your mom. You don’t always have to agree with her, but please be nice. You have absolutely no idea how much she’s done for you.”

“I do know—”

“You can’t possibly know, sweetheart. You were too young to be aware of what it was like for her to bring you into this world without your birth father in the picture. It was a very difficult, lonely time for her, and everything she did, she did for you because she loved you before you were even born. Mike came along and fell in love with you as much as he did with your mom. He’s given you everything he had to give and then some. He gave you his name, and he’s been a dad to you in every sense of the word. Please, Brooke... Please. Be nice to them. Be respectful of the sacrifices they’ve both made to ensure you had everything you needed.”

Brooke wiped away tears as she nodded. “I’ll try harder to get along with them.” She glanced at Sam. “Do I have to go back to the school in Virginia?”

“That’s a question for your parents.”

“I think I’d like to. I bet no one there knows what happened.”

“Nothing has to be decided today. Focus on getting better for now.”

“Thanks for asking your friend Jeannie to come talk to me. It helped.”

“I’m glad. Jeannie is a survivor, and so are you.” Sam hugged her again, tucked her back into bed and left her with a kiss to the forehead. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Thanks for all you did to figure out what happened to Todd and the other kids.”

“I wish I could say it was my pleasure, but...” Sam shrugged. “Love you, honey. Get some sleep.”

“Love you too.”

Nick, who’d remained by the door during Sam’s visit with Brooke, held the door for her as they left the room. “Well done, babe.”

“Let’s hope she got the message.”

“I think she gets it.”

He kept his arm around her in the elevator and all the way to the parking lot, where they decided to leave her car and pick it up the next day. When he held the passenger door to his car for her, Sam turned to him and slid her arms up his chest to curl them around his neck.

“I have to go in tomorrow to meet with the families to tell them how their kids died and what they were doing when it happened. After I deal with that happy task and a shit ton of paperwork on this whole thing, how do you feel about half a vacation?”

“With you, my love,” he said, sealing his sweet words with an even sweeter kiss, “I’ll take whatever I can get.”

Epilogue

Epilogue