“What happens if we do nothing, though?” Anika said, coming back to stand in front of Luca. “What happens to that baby if Nora is made to go back?”

He shook his head. “This isn’t a do-over, Anika—this isn’t . . .”

“But what if it was us? What would we do in her situation?” Luca leaned down, pressed his forehead against Anika’s so the two of them looked like they were sharing one breath. And then, so quietly, we heard Luca as he said, “All right, all right.”

61

It’s You

We had to tell the Trầns what was happening.

There are just some things you can’t hide from your neighbors, and especially those who are more like family. And especially not after I’d gotten Jed to lie to the police for me.

The next day Nora’s face was all over the morning paper, and then on the evening news. They said she was “absconding” from the safe haven and had last been seen boarding the 787 Sorrento to Safety Beach bus—which meant authorities were looking for her all the way up and down the Mornington Peninsula.

And that night, we invited the Trầns over for dinner—and only three of them got the shock of their lives when they walked through our door and saw Nora sitting at the table.

Vi slammed her plate of Pop’s favorite spring rolls onto the table, and instantly turned to Jed. “You knew! You lied to me!” she whisper-shouted.

I guess she knew because Jed wasn’t wearing the same look of shock and horror as his sister, and the fact that Penny had visited their house yesterday, too, following up on Jed and Aidan’s not-too-accurate eyewitness sighting of Nora. . . .

“Kids, go and play outside,” Anika sighed, and so Jed, Sam, Lily, and I trudged out to hang in Pop’s apartment, which had become Nora’s hideout.

I remembered months ago, when Aidan had explained to Sam that a conspiracy was like a secret. And I thought of that again as we walked into Pop’s place, Lily collapsing on the couch, folding her arms and raising an eyebrow at us before narrowing her gaze at Jed. “How does it feel to be a criminal, Văn?”

When Jed didn’t say anything, Lily kept prodding. “You’ve really gone and done it now. Mẹ is going to kill you!”

I spun around and pushed the screen door open, banging back out into the night. I plopped myself down on Pop’s ramp, my legs dangling through the railing, and listened as Jed spat, “Get lost, Huệ!” and came out to sit beside me.

“You okay, Fred?” he asked.

I was, and I wasn’t. Which I guessed was the way you felt when you were doing the right thing by doing something illegal.