Eliana could barely contain herself while I got ready, and she wouldn’t even eat Birdie’s complimentary scones and tea. I drove the four of us across town to the Holmes’s house, and I swear that Eliana could sense when we were getting close. She leaned forward in her seat, practically pressing her face to the window.

As soon as I pulled into the driveway in front of the large peridot cottage, Hanna burst out the front door and ran toward us. Eliana leapt out of the Jeep before I put it in park, despite the fact I’d just explicitly told her not to do that, and they ran to each other and hugged. They both made excited squeals that sounded like a cross between laughing and crying.

Finn and Mia came outside with their gaggle of children, and that began the twenty minutes of introductions between everyone. Once that was over, Mia invited us all in, but Hanna had already taken Eliana’s hand and started giving her a tour.

“I talked to Tove last night and set everything up for tomorrow,” Finn said as we made our way into the house.

“Excellent,” I said with a nervous smile. It was what I wanted, but I was still scared of the pain and what I might find out.

Mia led us into the living room, where we all sat around and made stilted, polite conversation. Or at least we attempted to, but it was hard with all the kids. Lissa climbed onto Sumi and kept playing with her hair, Emma kept interrupting to ask questions, Niko sat on my lap babbling, and Luna started crying.

“How are you liking Förening so far?” Mia tried to ask over all the chaos.

“We haven’t seen much,” Jem admitted with an uneasy smile.

“Is that a real knife?” Liam pointed to the one sheathed on Sumi’s waist.

“All right, that’s enough.” Finn stood and picked Lissa up, carefully untangling her chubby fingers from Sumi’s curls. “Liam, Emma, go up to your room and play.” He scooped up Luna with his other arm. “I’ll take the twins upstairs for my mother to watch.”

Niko fell silent and sank deeper into my arms as he played with the polar bear necklace I always wore.

“Sorry about all that,” Mia said once Finn had herded Liam and Emma up the stairs.

“It’s no problem,” Jem said with a smile, and Sumi looked relieved now that it was quieter.

Hanna suddenly bolted down the stairs, her laptop under her arm, and Eliana followed just behind her.

“We just had the most wonderful idea,” Hanna announced. She set her laptop down on the coffee table and knelt in front of it. “We’re going to video chat with Grandpa Johan and Grandma Sarina while Jem and everyone are here.”

“Your grandparents might be busy,” Mia warned as the laptop made its da-da-da ringing sound.