Mom, Maria, and I took shifts keeping Cali company. Normally, I slept there and then Maria would relieve me so I could work, and Mom would take over halfway through the day. Cali wanted for nothing, and with the nurses taking care of her, she seemed to be healing a little better. But Mom’s energy seemed to be fading before my eyes. We’d been working in shifts to be with Cali at the hospital for a month now and we were all tired, but Mom’s lack of energy didn’t seem to be from a lack of good quality rest.

“What’s wrong, Mom?” I asked as we ate dinner together in the hospital cantina while Cali napped.

She’d been staring out the window, the heaviness of her thoughts weighing down on her and making her shoulders droop. At my question, she turned her head and gave me a small, sad smile. “Just missing everyone back at home, sweetheart. As angry as I am at your father for leaving you down here, I…” She shrugged and took a drink of her coffee. “I bet he’s going out of his mind trying to find me. It’s been seven weeks now, and honestly, I thought he might have found me by now.”

I pushed away my plate of food and picked up my drink, my appetite fading at the mention of Dad. Even as angry as I was at him and the rest of my family, guilt gnawed at me. Part of me wanted him to suffer, but at the same time, I didn’t want him to hurt as I’d been hurting. “Do you want to go home?”

“No,” she answered without hesitation. “No, sweetheart. I’m where I need to be right now. Cali and Justice need both of us more than anyone else at the moment.” She grasped my hand and gave it a firm squeeze. “But we can’t stay hidden forever. We have people who love and miss us. And no matter how much you deny it and use your anger to shield yourself, I know you miss them too.”

“So what if I miss them?” I groused, knowing I sounded petulant but unable to stop myself.

“Ryan—”

“Mom,” I bit out, fighting against the ache hearing his name caused. “We’ve talked about this. I don’t want to talk about him.”

“Well, too bad, because I’m not going to sit here a moment longer and let you continue to think that he gave up on you.” She placed her coffee cup on the table, her beautiful face turning stern. “They told me what they found, Nova. It was so hard to listen while Anya gave me details of how they found Ciana and what they thought was you.”

“They should have known it wasn’t me.” I pulled up the sleeve of my jacket and showed her the ink on my wrist. “This alone should have been plenty.”

“Sheena cut off the girl’s hands and feet and took them with her,” she choked out.