Chapter 83. Our Brothers’ Predicaments (2)

[2019, March 30th & 31st]

“Leave my son be, Henry. He’s happy. For the first time in his life, he looks unburdened,” she said, her voice becoming unsteady as she showed him the pictures Bart and Aaron had collected of the newlyweds.

There wasn’t a single one in which they didn’t look happy, truly, beyond a shadow of a doubt happy, even as they fled from place to place. They looked something like she and Henry had in the beginning. Always touching in some way or another, stealing secret glances and kisses and sharing not so secret ones. Forgetting the world and making their own.

“He’ll call, he always calls. We have a rule about going off of the grid. We always call within 24 hours. He’s probably just-”

Cassandra’s phone rang. Sure enough, it was James.

“Hi honey,” she answered, working hard to steady her voice.

“Ma? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I just had something cold to drink, that’s all.”

“Sure you did,” he answered suspiciously.