I have a hard time believing Pa said that—or at least that he used those exact words. Would he really want us to inconvenience Jorge and Amy like that? Does he really think that moving the baby’s crib is a good idea, when he knows it’ll probably not even fit in their tiny room? Is he really willing to ask them to put their whole lives on pause for Sophie and me? I don’t think this is something Ma would want, either. She wouldn’t want us to leave our apartment. She would want us to stay here, to look after the home she and Pa built for us, to be in a place that feels familiar and safe.

“We can’t,” I say. Even as the words leave my mouth, I look at Sophie for confirmation that this is the right thing to do. “Not now. We need to stay here—to keep things as normal as we can for as long as we can, until our parents find a way to come back.”

Sophie blinks a few times. Her silence tells me everything I need to know, because if she didn’t like what I was doing—if she really wanted to go stay at Uncle Jorge’s—she would speak up. I’m sure of it.

She comes to stand by my side, and we both look up at Jorge for a few seconds. He also looks torn—between the promise he made to my parents and what he knows makes the most sense for him and his family.

In the end, he gives a small nod. “You don’t have to come if you don’t want to,” he says. “But I’m here. I am here for you. If you need money, or food, or anything at all, you can come to me. Don’t forget that, okay?”

I know, I want to say. Thank you. Knowing you’re here for us means everything to me. But I can’t bring myself to say any of those things, because there are too many other thoughts rushing through my mind: how much I hate this—how much I wish we didn’t have to rely on Uncle Jorge, or anyone else, for that matter. How much I wish my parents were still here, that they had never been taken away, that we weren’t living this nightmare.

Uncle Jorge leaves after a while, but not before writing down four numbers on a notepad. The first is his cell phone, which we obviously already have, but he felt the need to write down just in case. The second is Amy’s cell phone. The third and fourth are the numbers to the places where Ma and Pa are being detained.