“I think it’s going to be a girl. And I’m making a list of names so you’ll have plenty to pick from. Dad’s doing better, by the way. He’ll come to visit you later, too.” She must know by now that he’s not dead. That Santiago had devised that plan to lure Abel out. It just went so horribly wrong. But I’m not going to think about Abel now.
“Antonia and I have unpacked most of the baby gifts, but they just keep coming. There’s so much, Ivy! Everyone is excited about this baby, even Santiago’s weird sister,” I say, leaning in close to whisper the next part. “She wants to come home, but Santiago won’t let her.” I keep an eye on the door. “I overheard him tell her the house will be ready for you. That he’s going to bring you home any day now.” I leave out the part about not wanting any additional stress for Ivy when she gets home.
I straighten again and tuck the blankets closer around my sister. I look at her face. Then at the monitors. Nothing.
I can’t help a sob when I look down at her again and try to suck it all back in.
“Sorry,” I say, wiping my tear off her face. “I’m trying really hard to keep it together because someone has to, but it’s getting tougher. You need to wake up, okay? You just need to push through whatever is happening inside you and wake up. There’s no reason you’re not awake. The doctors say so.” I take a deep breath in and pull myself together. “I’ve never seen Santiago like he is. If he’s not in here, he’s in his office in the dark. He just sits there like a ghost or a vampire or something. Never comes out when anyone is around. I think he doesn’t know how to be without you. We all just really need you back home.”
The door opens, and I turn my face away to swipe at my eyes.
“Hey.” Hazel’s greeting is soft, warm, and concerned. She’s my sister, I know, and I’ve gotten to know her over the past few months, but it’s still weird. I barely remember her being home, but she left when I was six or seven, so I guess that’s normal.
“Hey,” I say.
She reaches into her bag and takes out a candy bar for me. “Michael says it’s your favorite.”
I take the candy. “Yes! He came through. Here.” I reach into my pocket and pull out a mini bag of gummy bears. “These are for him.”
“You guys have a junk food swap going?”
I shrug a shoulder. “I’m his aunt. I’m allowed to spoil him.”
“You’re thirteen,” she says, dropping the bag of gummies into her bag. She looks at Ivy and sighs deeply. “Anything?”
I shake my head. “How’s Michael?” I still can’t believe Abel kidnapped him and Hazel. I just don’t get it.
“He’ll be okay,” she says but I know she’s not telling me everything.
“You?” I ask.
“I’m fine,” she says with a warm smile as she squeezes my hand. “Thanks for asking.”
“The baby’s awake,” I say as we both look at the blanket move over Ivy’s belly. “Let me get my phone.” I dig it out of my back pocket and start to record it.
“You know that’s kind of creepy right?”
“I don’t care. She shouldn’t miss this. I’ll show her when she wakes up.” When the baby settles down, I put the phone away and find Hazel watching me with that pitying look I’m getting to know. “She will wake up. You don’t know her like I do, Hazel.”
“Okay, Eva.”
“Not okay, Eva. She will.”
“I know she will.” She squeezes my hand, and we just sit there for a while. Hazel chatters on about Michael, telling Ivy what he’s up to. The nurses said it was good to do. To keep talking to her. Let her know we’re here, and we miss her.
Santiago arranged things with IVI with Hazel and Michael. I don’t really know what he did or what the problem was exactly, but she’s living back at home now. Dad’s back home, too, but Mom’s moved out. It’s like musical houses with us. I could have gone back too, but I chose to stay with Santiago. He needs me more than they do.
Hazel stays an hour and then gets up to go as the sun is starting to set. “I need to be home for dinner with Michael. And I’m sure Dad wants to come see you, too.” She’s talking to Ivy. “I’ll be back tomorrow, okay?” She adjusts her blanket. “You want a ride home?” she asks me.
I shake my head. “I’ll just stay until Santiago gets here. Marco will drive me home after.”
“All right.” She hugs me, then leans over to kiss Ivy’s forehead. “See you guys tomorrow.”
I watch the parking lot from Ivy’s window, and like clockwork, Santiago’s car pulls in as soon as the sun’s gone.
“I swear he’s a vampire,” I whisper as I watch him walk, head bowed, to the entrance. “Most people can’t have visitors overnight, but they’ve made an exception for him,” I tell Ivy as I sit back down. “Compulsion probably. I heard vampires can do that.”
“Or charm,” Santiago says from the door.
“See, how’d you get up here so fast?”
He smiles, waggles his eyebrows, and hangs his hat on the hook by the door. When he looks at Ivy lying there, his expression darkens. His face gets so sad it’s almost hard to look at him.
“You should stop with the hat, you know,” I say, shifting my gaze away from him.
“What do you mean?”
“You don’t have to hide your face.”
I feel his eyes on me, but he doesn’t answer. “You should get ready to go. Marco will be here soon and Antonia’s getting dinner ready.”
“Is he
