Vi tucked my bangs behind my ear and smiled kindly. “Luca told me. There’s no need for you to worry,” she said, “I’m going to pop home now and take care of it—I’ve got your spare key.”

It was the weirdest thing to sit through assembly and PE, and Mr. Khouri talking about prime numbers and active verbs, and how the Summer Olympics were coming to Australia the next year.

And if it was nearly impossible for me to concentrate on anything, I don’t know how Sam must have felt when it was his actual mother and more-his brother stuck in the hospital two towns over.

Jed must have told Aidan and Keira what happened, too, because nobody asked any questions—they just seemed to know. It also meant that when the bell rang at the end of the day, nobody—not even Mr. Khouri—said anything about me and Sam bolting for the door without bothering to stack our chairs away or make sure our tables were tidied.

Luca was waiting at the gate. He’d changed out of his pajamas into normal clothes, so he must have been home. He was wearing about a million frowns and looking so tired, it was like he’d shrunk overnight somehow. I ran right to him and his arms opened the same as always, so I just held on for a minute—and then one of his arms lifted and Sam was hugging him, too, and I didn’t even mind.

We walked through the front doors of Rosebud Hospital, and the nurses directed us to something called the Green Wing, a side of the building where they kept all the families and babies together. Even the ones that weren’t born yet.

I was glad that Luca kept a hand on my and Sam’s shoulders, and turned us down all the right corridors. The smell of the hospital—too clean and cold—was making me dizzy, and I was relieved when we finally got to the Green Wing and a nurse showed us the way to Anika. She was sitting up in bed and already had her arms opened wide, as if she’d heard us coming.

Sam ran to her and fitted himself under her arm and around her big belly, taking care not to disturb the tube that was stuck in her hand and running to a machine by her bed.

They stayed like that for a minute, and I could hear Anika murmuring muffled words into Sam’s neck that had him nodding his head and crying a little bit. Luca and I hung back by the door. I grabbed my elbow with my opposite hand and shifted on my feet, wondering if Luca should’ve just brought Sam and left me at home.