The car trip back to the city had been boring, so Emmaline fished out her phone to catch up with her friends and even doom-scrolled through several of her social media accounts before Eric pulled up into the parking garage for Mt. Sinai. They had already dropped off Anna at the Delaney house. She had been looking kind of pale. Em hoped she would be alright.

  Emmaline still couldn’t wrap her mind around the fact that she was going to be an aunt! It actually brought a feeling of excitement. She hadn’t realized how down and out she had been feeling about the future. With Michael gone and Dad’s condition being so uncertain, it had cast a terrible gloom over everything. But the idea of a baby changed all that. A baby meant hope. A new beginning. Something to look forward to beyond all this darkness.

  As they rode the elevator up to Dad’s floor (Mom had texted Eric the new room number), Emmaline pictured a tiny bundle with Michael’s thoughtful eyes. Would the baby have Dome-ni abilities too? Would it grow up thinking Earth was normal, the way she had? A pang of something—regret, nostalgia, she wasn’t sure—hit her as she realized this baby would know the truth from the start. No elaborate secrets, no world-shattering revelations when they were a teenager. This little one would know exactly who he or she was from the very beginning, and Emmaline had to admit that she felt a little jealous about that.

  She and Eric stepped out of the elevator and made for Dad’s room. Doc Williams had arranged a place for him in the hospital’s stroke center and had even arranged with the nurses for there to be over two visitors in the room at a time as long as they were respectful of all the other hospital rules.

  The two of them stepped into Dad’s room. It was a private room and much larger than the one in the other hospital. There were also three chairs available instead of two, and they looked way more comfortable than the others had been. Mom was already sitting next to Dad. Her hand over his as usual and she looked deep in thought. But she looked up when we came in.

  “Hey, how was the trip back?” she asked.

  “Definitely more uneventful than the trip there or while we were at the farm,” Eric said as he took a seat next to Mom and stretched out his long legs in front of him.

  Emmaline went to the chair farthest from Dad and took a seat. She sank right into the cushy seat and smiled. This was way better, even if she had gotten the seat all the way across the room from everyone else.

  Eric then told Mom all that had happened, starting with the flight with Tyler and the honest conversation before they hopped out of the helicopter. All about the UFO group camped out on the Radcliffe property. Then the story of how old man Grober almost shot them and then confessed he’d seen everything that had happened between Dad and Michael, and even Michael’s floating trip up to the ship.

  Mom had frowned the whole time Eric was speaking, but once he’d finished with Grober, she had a few words to say.

  “Are you sure he said he’d keep quiet about Michael?”

  “That is what he led me to believe,” Eric replied.

  “He’s known for that big mouth of his,” Mom said, and then pursed her lips.

  “I am aware.”

  Mom looked toward the window, worry etching deeper lines across her forehead. “Grober’s the type who can keep a secret until it serves him to tell it. I’m just not sure what might serve him in this case.”

  “He seemed genuinely concerned about Dad,” Eric said.

  Mom nodded. “Perhaps.”

  Emmaline was on the edge of her seat waiting for Eric to get to the good part. He was taking too long in her opinion. “Tell her the rest, Eric, or should I?”

  Mom looked curious. “The rest of what?”

  Emmaline decided she wasn’t going to wait for Eric. “Well, for one, Michael drove Dad’s car right into the flowerbed in front of the house. He practically parked on the front porch! The tire was flat, so Eric had to fix it.”

  Mom’s eyes widened. “He did what?”

  “Yeah, but that’s not even the important part,” Emmaline continued, unable to contain herself. “Mom, Anna’s pregnant! Michael’s going to be a dad!”

  The words hung in the air. Mom’s hand went to her mouth. The silence stretched between them, broken only by the steady beep of Dad’s heart monitor. Mom’s eyes glistened with unshed tears.

  “Oh my,” she whispered finally. “How far along is she?”

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  “Around five weeks, she thinks,” Eric said. “She only found out earlier this week. Anna didn’t tell Michael because she wanted to wait until their next weekend together.”

  Mom’s shoulders slumped slightly, then straightened with a deep breath. “That poor girl. I can only imagine what she must be going through right now. It’s just making everything that much harder.”

  “She was definitely having trouble keeping it together at the farm, and barely said a word while we drove back into the city,” Emmaline said.

  “She’s processing,” Eric said gently. “It’s a lot to take in and to adjust to in a short period.”

  Mom nodded, her fingers still absently stroking Dad’s hand. “We need to be there for her. All of us. It’s the least we can do with Michael being gone.”

  “We already told her that, but I think she’s still feeling overwhelmed,” Eric said.

  Mom patted Dad’s hand. “I’m sure she is, and I know all about that. I remember when I had just found out I was pregnant with your brother. I had never been so scared in my life, because I knew it would cause problems.

  “The Emperor was already in a union contract, which is pretty much the same thing as marriage here on Earth, but usually more complicated with a whole list of what’s allowed and not allowed inside the contracted time of the union. There’s usually a standard clause about there being no children born with anyone else during the union. So when I told Ghar about the pregnancy, he was understandably upset. He sent me away, and my family refused to take me back.”

  The room was quiet as Mom paused. She had that faraway look, telling Emmaline that she was reliving more memories of her time in Ethia. She held her breath, hoping Mom would continue. This was part of the story she hadn’t talked about yet, and now Emmaline understood why. The pain was clear in her eyes. Would it have been like to be pregnant with nowhere to go?

  Finally, Mom was able to continue after she wiped a tear that had fallen down her cheek. “Thankfully, King Rainus opened up his home to me. He and his family were lifesavers. They accepted me as if I were one of them, and when Michael was born, they celebrated him and accepted him too. Rainus even had Arie transfer his Protector bond between himself to Michael.” Mom smiled at that.

  “I thought the Emperor wanted Michael, and that’s why he sent a ship to bring him back?” Eric asked.

  “He did, but that came later, after Michael had gotten a little older and it became obvious that he had Ghar’s same Dome-ni. Once that became clear, he did everything in his power to convince me to come back to the White Palace, to be his wife, and to bring our son.”

  “Wasn’t he already married?” Em asked incredibly.

  “He dissolved their union contract. His wife had been angry about the whole thing and attempted to have Michael killed on multiple occasions. If it hadn’t been for Arie, she might very well have succeeded. Between the assassination attempts and her being inconsolably angry, Ghar decided he’d had enough of her.”

  “Jesus,” Eric muttered.

  “I said yes, I went back to him, but by then I was head over heels in love with Arie. I thought I could just get over it, that having my son officially claimed by the Emperor would be a good thing for him, for his future.” Mom shook her head. “I was such a fool. I should have just stayed where I was. But there was also the fear that Ghar would simply take my son away from me. I thought if I went into a union contract with him that maybe I’d have more control over being a part of my son’s life.

  “I didn’t count on Ghar finding out about my relationship with Arie and taking it out on him. Ghar refused to let Arie be Michael’s Protector and blocked him from coming to the White Palace when Michael went to live there. I have no doubt in my mind that the Zahn brothers’ attack would have gone down differently if Arie had been there to stop it. Maybe it would never have happened in the first place.”

  Mom took a shaky breath. “And when Michael was injured, when he was lying there in so much pain after the attack, I knew I couldn’t stay. I couldn’t trust Ghar to keep him safe. So I called Arie, and I told him to come get us.”

  Emmaline leaned forward. “That’s when you left the Empire?”

  “That was the start of it. We were on the run for a while until we realized it was only a matter of time before the Emperor found us. He had the whole Empire in an uproar trying to find us. I’m glad we left. I’m glad we ended up here. I wouldn’t change any of that in the least.” She smiled sadly at Dad.

  “But I worry about Anna now,” Mom continued. “She’s facing some of the same fears I did—uncertainty, isolation, and raising a child without its father. Granted, the circumstances are different, and I know that if Michael could be here to help her, he would. I’m going to make sure she doesn’t feel the way I did,” Mom said firmly. “No one should have to go through a pregnancy feeling alone and scared.”

  Emmaline nodded, trying to imagine what it must have been like for her mother—pregnant, rejected by her family, and caught in the middle of imperial politics. It made her own problems seem small in comparison.

  “We should invite her over tomorrow,” Emmaline suggested, straightening in her chair. “And maybe we can help her set up a nursery at her place? Or—” She paused, “—maybe she’d want to stay with us for a while after the baby comes?” Emmaline finished, the ideas tumbling out faster as her excitement grew.

  Mom gave her a gentle smile. “Those are lovely thoughts, Em. But we need to be careful not to overwhelm her with too many suggestions right now. This is all new to her. Probably what she needs most right now is the promise of support and people she can talk to and share in her grief.”

  “Well, I can definitely do that,” Emmaline said. She felt her own sadness welling up inside.

  Her throat tightened as she thought about her brother—about how excited he would have been to learn he was going to be a father. Michael had always been so good with kids. Even when she’d been little, Em remembered him helping her, teaching her, and just being a really great big brother. Sure, sometimes he’d get annoyed with her like any sibling would, but most of the time he was always someone she knew could be counted on to help her when needed.

  A wide grin suddenly came to Mom’s face, and her eyes twinkled with delight. “I’m going to be a grandmother.”

  Emmaline couldn’t help but smile at her mother’s joy breaking through the sadness that had cloaked them all these past few days. Em’s heart swelled with her own elation. Yes, indeed, maybe the future wasn’t so doom and gloom after all.

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