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“No, buddy, they can’t really leave.”

“What if they want to go home?” Luka’s tone ringed with sadness.

“They can’t,” I said softly. “But they take good care of them.”

His eyes darted from me to the penguins and back to me again. “So they can’t leave?” His lips quivered.

“No, buddy.”

Luka’s eyes suddenly welled with tears, and my heart dropped. I maneuvered my pregnant body into a crouch and cradled his cheeks.

“Luka, what’s wrong, baby?” I felt like crying when I saw tears stream down his red cheeks.

“I want the pengwins to be free, Katiew,” he sniffled. “T-the ba-ad man used to lock me up like that, and I didn’t like it. I was scared. The pengwins must be sc-cared too,” he hiccuped.

I felt like someone was ripping apart my heart from my rib cage. “I’m so sorry those monsters hurt you like that. But Katy and Lan will never, ever let anything happen to you, okay? And these penguins are very happy here buddy. See they are loving the fishes,” I consoled, forcing a smile on my trembling lips.

“Katiew, I want to stay with you both forever and forever.” Luka hugged me tightly. “Pleawse don’t send me back to the b-bad man.”

“I won’t. I promise.” My voice cracked. “You’re my boy now, and no one can ever take you away from me, you understand?”

He nodded, a faint smile whispering his lips while I wiped away the remnants of his tears.

Luka’s mood significantly improved by the time we made it to the gift shop. He was already giggling at my silly jokes and happily slurping his chocolate milkshake I got him, his second milkshake of the day.

We finally came to the plushies section and even after seeing all the animals, Luka still didn’t know what his favorite animal was.

It took us about ten minutes till we narrowed it down to four animals.

A rhino. A lion. A flamingo. A tiger.

“Katy can buy them all for you, buddy,” I said.

“No.” He shook his head. “I only want one. Can I get Mitchell one?”

“Of course.” I smiled.

Mitchell was his best friend in St. Mary’s. Luka sometimes tagged along with Matty when he went to Iona to see his friends and visit Lucia and Peter. But he was settling better in his new environment and had gotten pretty comfortable living with us, so he considered the apartment his home.

Luka chose the tiger because he thought it was interesting and a pink glittery flamingo for Mitchell. But just on the way to the counter, he dropped the tiger and picked a giraffe and declared it was his favorite animal in an instant.

I shook my head. I would never understand boys.

“We’re home,” Luka and I both announced when we returned home

There was no response, except for the TV running in the background.

And from where we were standing, it looked like no one was sitting on the couch.

Where was Lan?

I thought he would be at home.

Frowning, we both shrugged off our coats and padded closer to the couch. A smile split through both our faces when we saw a shirtless Lan snoring softly. He was on his back, sprawled lazily, too tall for the length of the couch.

Luka cupped his hand over his mouth yet his giggle leaked through his fingers and I motioned with my pointer finger to keep quiet.

I dropped the gift bag on the coffee table and tiptoed to Lan.