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“Just give them a chance, for me? I don’t think they’re going anywhere any time soon,” I warned him.
“So are you staying for dinner?” Xander asked as Kyle and I pulled apart from our hug. I turned to look at Harris and Nick, who were closest to me. It was up to them. They were the ones who had been made to feel pretty unwelcome so far.
“If it’s what you want, sweetheart, then we’re good with it,” Harris replied.
“Great!” mom declared before I even answered. “Now hand that adorable little munchkin over to me. I bought him something at the store yesterday.” She held her hands out to Nick, who held Zack in his arms. The little guy had just woken from his nap, so he was still all cuddly and quiet.
He went happily into my mom’s arms and I saw her melt right there on the spot when he cuddled into her and rested his head on her shoulder.
“He’s still a little sleepy after his nap,” Nick told her.
“Maybe we’re not too old for more kids, Grant?” mom said as she looked to my dad.
“I think when we already have multiple grandchildren, we probably are a little old, Keira,” Dad explained with a roll of his eyes. He looked to me with a grimace, then followed mom towards the living room.
“Please tell me she’s not being serious?” I asked, looking to Livy, Xand, and Matt.
“Who knows with Keira?” Livy laughed.
“Oh God!” I groaned. My mom may be a young grandma, but she was way too old to be a new mom again.
“Come on. Let’s go and check on Aleks, see if he found anything,” Kailan suggested as he wrapped an arm around me and led me from the kitchen. Harris followed behind us, and I heard Nick offering to help in the kitchen as we left. I suspected he wanted to stay close to Zack, just in case. He didn’t know my mom well and no one could blame him for being cautious.
I had no concerns though. My mom and dad were the greatest parents and grandparents I knew, and could ever have wished for. Over the years they had cared for so many children, many from very difficult backgrounds, but they never turned a single kid away. They gave them everything they could for whatever length of time they got to live with us, and they had many success stories – kids who still spoke with and visited my parents regularly despite the fact they were all grown up with lives, jobs, and families of their own.
I looked up as we got into the hall, at all of the photos of the foster kids who had passed through our home, many of them before I even arrived. Mom and dad had pictures of every single one of them on the wall, mixed with pictures of me and my brothers. They were family pictures, of good times. The family changed over and over, but the fun, happiness, and contentment was there to see in each image.
“Come on, Ev,” Harris called to me, and I glanced up to where he was already halfway up the stairs. Aleks had moved his search for bugs upstairs it seemed.
Kailan was just ahead of me, but he had stopped when he realized I’d dropped behind. I took a step to catch up to him, but paused as my brain registered something I’d seen. I stepped back and looked over the images again.
“Fuck!” I gasped as I stumbled back away from the images, my legs suddenly feeling too weak to hold me up.
“Evie? What’s wrong?” Kailan cried as he leapt forward and caught me before I went down. He wrapped himself around my back, holding me up as I just stood and stared at the image close to the center of all of the frames.
“Ev? Talk to us?” Harris was before me now, blocking my view of that damned photo. I looked around him to check it was still there, that I hadn’t imagined it. But it was still there. The image was of me, around four years old, smiling as Xander and Kade held my hands and swung me up in the air. Beside Kade was a broody looking Kyle and beside Xander…it couldn’t be! I was losing my mind. I had to be.
“XANDER!” I yelled through the house at the top of my lings, panic clear to hear in my voice.
Harris looked to me with confusion, then to the photos behind me, but, of course, he had no idea what was going on.
“Evie? What is it?” Xander asked as he sprinted towards me, clearly panicked by my cry for him. Nick was right behind him, his eyes instantly finding mine as he hurried to my side too. Matt and Kyle were right behind him, and Livy was at the back. Mom and Dad came rushing from the living room too, Zack happily in dad’s arms.
“Xander, wh-who the f-fuck is that?” I gasped as I pointed to the guy standing beside him in the image. The words would barely come out, my chest so tight I was fighting for every breath. Those eyes – those cold, dead eyes were looking right at me.
“What?” Xander looked to the picture, clearly confused.
“Him!” I cried as I jabbed a finger toward the image. “Who is he?”
“That’s Jason. He lived with us for about six months when you were three or four. Why? What’s wrong, honey?” mom asked.
I turned to Kailan and Harris who were looking at me knowingly. I confirmed what they had already realized.
“Th-that’s him. That’s Soloman,” I gasped. It all started to click into place. The nightmare I had continually suffered with, the day I was saying the names of my family. It stood out to my sub conscious because Soloman did something out of character. He asked me what I said, and he looked confused and upset. He knew the names I was listing. He knew my family. That was why he let me go. It was why he couldn’t end me – because he knew me. He probably held me and played with me when I was tiny.
“Aleks!” Harris yelled as he placed a hand on my shoulder in an attempt to soothe me.
Aleks came racing down the stairs, followed by Kade and Cole.
