23.

 

The dog woke Sadie early nudging her hand with his wet nose. "In a minute," Sadie groaned before rolling over and putting her arm over Kevin's chest. She'd half expected him not to be there, but her arm rose and fell with his breathing. Though he'd said it would never be the same, it all seemed the same to Sadie: the warmth of his body, the rhythm of his breath, the way the sun filtered in through the slits in the blinds. The bed shook as Sammy jumped up, resting his front paws on the mattress and whimpering. "All right," Sadie sighed and rolled out of bed.

Sammy ran down the hallway in front of her, his tail wagging with excitement the whole way. Sadie slowed as she passed Marcus's door to look in on him. He lay on his bed curled up beneath his sheet, his tiny hand over his face. She couldn't help but step inside the room and take a moment longer to look at him. She wondered if he realized how different he was becoming.

She heard Sammy panting by the door and turned to see him waiting patiently for her. "Ready to go out, boy?" she whispered to him as she walked back into the hall. She walked to the kitchen happy to know that her family was all together under one roof again. The secret that had weighed her down for so many years was out, and she had a new bounce in her step. She pushed the back door open and Sammy raced out.

It didn't take long for Marcus to wake and join her in the kitchen. Sadie was pouring him a bowl of cereal when the house phone rang.

"I'll get it," Kevin called from the next room. It wasn't long before he walked into the kitchen with the phone pressed against his ear. "Of course I'm angry with you," he said. "Here's Sadie." He held the phone out to her. She didn't have to ask who it was.

"I knew he'd come back," Gloria said.

Sadie walked to her bedroom and closed the door behind her before continuing. "Why didn't you call my cell phone?"

"I did three times already."

"The battery must be dead." Sadie saw it sitting lifeless on the bedside table. "So did you talk to her?"

"Yes, she wants to see them."

"What?"

"Can you and Marcus come back here to visit for a few days?"

Sadie looked toward the bedroom door. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Her name is Olivia Penner. She doesn't live too far from me and she really is very nice," Gloria said.

"Would you listen to yourself? Don't you think this whole thing is suspicious?" Sadie asked. All these years Sadie had imagined the boys' mother as a young drug addict. The idea that she was a normal person who lived in Gloria's neighborhood was a bit more than she was willing to accept. "Did she tell you why she abandoned them?"

"No, not yet. She says she wants to talk about it with all of us at once. Can you come here soon?"

"What's she like?" Every cell in Sadie's body was focused on what Gloria said.

"I met her after dropping Jay at school at a little coffee shop down the street from the office. She showed up in a designer suit. I was awkward, of course, but she was very relaxed. She just wanted to know a bit about Jay and me. She asked about Marcus. She wanted to know if he was the one she saw at the museum."

"What did you tell her?"

"Not much really. Just that he was and that he lives with a friend in Florida."

"Do you think she'll try to find me?"

"I doubt it."

"What did you find out about her and the boys' father?"

"Nothing about the father. She didn't tell me much at all. She wants to tell us all together. That's why you need to come here. She's French. She's lived here since she was sixteen."

"French," Sadie repeated. "You're sure she's their biological mother."

"She knew about Jay's birthmark. And like I told you before, she knew exactly where she'd left them. She described the blanket they were wrapped in. She's their mother."

The bedroom door opened and Kevin stuck his head in. "Is everything okay?"

Sadie took the phone away from her ear. "Not really." Her voice quivered.

"What is it?" He stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.

Sadie sighed and put the phone back up to her ear.

"Come to Philly. Bring Kevin with you. We'll all meet her. You'll like her. I know she'll be able to tell us what is going on with the boys and what to do from here," Gloria said.

Sadie was silent. She thought about Marcus floating in the air over the bed. She thought about the weight of his body when she snatched him from the air that night. She wanted to keep him safe. She wanted to hold onto him so tightly that he would never get away, but she knew that as the years passed that would get harder and harder.

"Are you coming?" Gloria interrupted her thoughts.

"I don't know," she whispered into the phone. "Let me talk to Kevin about it."

"Okay, let me know what you decide soon," Gloria said before hanging up the phone.

"Talk to me about what?" Kevin asked.

Sadie put her phone down on the bed. "I think we're going to Philly," she said.