Ally stood in the mausoleum and peered through the stained glass window. A few yards away stood four adults. People she knew well. She’d known them her whole life. Well, all but the first four years of her life. People she would always consider hers.
The family faced the gravesite they came to visit. Bhai kept his arm around Mummy while Reya hugged on Pappa, her head resting on his shoulder. Between her parents was the empty spot that was once hers. Everyone had their role, and if Ally stood with them, she’d have been right there in the middle, with an arm wrapped around her parents’ waists unifying the family into one complete line.
A bright yellow Mylar balloon with a picture of a rainbow was tied to the tombstone they stared at. She couldn’t hear their words, but she knew they were singing. She knew not because she was an excellent lip reader but because it was David’s birthday. Her chest tightened. He had hated the whole ordeal but would politely smile until it was over. Which was why Reya always brought him a cake, the gaudiest balloons, and forced them all to sing.
Ally pressed her palm on the glass and watched them, memorizing every detail. A tear slipped down her cheek. Exhaustion and pain was etched across their faces and in the way they carried themselves. And all of it was because of her. Almost three decades ago, they took in an orphaned girl as their own and gave her their hearts. Little did they realize the same girl would one day rip those beautiful hearts to pieces. When they walked past, she moved away from the window and leaned against the wall, trying to hear their words. “They are all together now,” Mummy said. “Her birth parents and her David. They will take care of my baby.”
Ally’s lip quivered but she didn’t cry—she smiled. It hadn’t occurred to her how comforting the idea of her reuniting with her biological parents and David would be to them. The thought eased her guilt.
She watched them wander away and waited long after they’d gone before she left the mausoleum. When she neared David’s grave, she slowed down and focused on the man whose body lay beneath it. In a way, Mummy was right. David was with her and would always be. The tomb she stared at only held his bones, nothing more. He owned her heart and her soul and was a constant presence in her dreams. And he would stay there until the day when they would finally meet again.
“Happy birthday, baby,” she whispered.
Funny thing about time. Some people believed it healed all wounds, but Ally knew that wasn’t the case. Time only made the wounded get used to their pain. And if they were lucky, they’d find other joys along the way. Joys that could numb the ache, if only for a little while.
A smile stretched across her face as she walked to the parking lot and the dark sedan waiting for her. Seated inside were her two joys. They were her world now. A world she would protect at all costs.
She opened the back door and slid in beside Aadam’s booster seat, quickly closing the door beside her. Fast asleep, the bottom of his chin pressed against his chest, raising and lowering between his snores. Puppy, the white dog from the compound, sat guard on the other side of him. The furry creature’s nose rested in the little boy’s lap while the child’s hand lay on the dog’s neck. Puppy looked up at her when Ally lifted Aadam’s head from its awkward position, leaning his cheek against the side of his headrest. Deeming the situation safe, the dog thumped its tail against the seat and closed its eyes.
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” Ally asked the woman who was driving as she backed out of the parking spot.
“Razaa why don’t you do the honors?” Leanna quipped from the driver’s seat.
The young man in question turned around and grinned back at Ally. His beard had long been shaved clean, making him look more like the seventeen-year-old he was. Other than the pale scar running along his cheek, all physical remnants of his injuries from a few weeks ago were gone. “You got your wish, Mom. We are going to Washington.”
Her throat tightened as it did every time he called her Mom.
“Do you even know how to work an apple orchard?” Leanna asked.
Ally smiled at the question. “Not a clue but someone once told me it’s the perfect place to retire.”
“Well, I’ve done some research…” Leanna said as she drove to the airport.
While the two in front discussed the business of apple farming, Ally’s mind wandered to a night in a hotel room an eternity ago. Razaa was wrong. It wasn’t her wish they’d granted.
“Promise me two things,” David whispered.
“What?”
Soft fingers brushed up and down her spine. “One: buy me a ranch somewhere nice like Seattle, where we can retire early and do something boring like grow fruit or make cheese. And two: After we live a beautifully long life, I die before you. Seeing as how I already had to go through it once, it’s only fair the next time around it be your turn.”
She looked over her shoulder in the direction of the cemetery they’d left behind. The corners of her mouth lifted as she imagined a happy David making a check mark in the air with his finger.