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Instead of answering my question, Leah asked her own. “You were the family friend?” She glared at Bianca.

Bianca shook her head. “No. I mean, I didn’t do the interview, but I think one of my clients may have. Well, former client now.”

“What article?” I asked again, that time a bit more forcefully than before.

Mama filled me in on the article. Once again, they’d kept something from me, but that time I didn’t care. With everything I was dealing with back then, and had just learned about, I’m glad they didn’t give me more news to deal with.

“Why do you think it was your former client?” Leah asked.

“Because we were talking about it.” Bianca’s head lowered. “She said everything I’d told her almost verbatim.” Bianca looked up again. “I’m really sorry.”

Mama walked over to Bianca. “It’s okay. It wasn’t what was said that bothered us the most. It was thinking someone close to us was talking to the press behind our backs. That’s the part we were most concerned about. I mean, it’s not like the article said anything that was a secret.” Mama smiled.

Bianca looked at me and Leah.

“Thank you for telling us,” Leah said. “Just be careful who next time. Mama’s right. You didn’t share any deep, dark secrets or anything, but now you know you can’t trust everyone who sits in your chair.”

Bianca nodded. “Yes, I’ve definitely learned that lesson.”

“Good. Well, I need to go call Quinton,” Leah said, turning away from us.

“I’m going to go.” Bianca opened the door.

“Bianca,” Skye called after her. “I’m sorry I lied to you. I wasn’t thinking. When I saw you at the store, and you said you were going to New Orleans, all I knew was I had to get away for a while. I shouldn’t have pulled you into my mess, though.”

Bianca’s face softened. “No, you shouldn’t have,” she said before walking through the door.

Leah was walking back down the hallway as we were returning to the family room. “Quinton was already in the neighborhood,” she said.

I sat next to Skye on the sofa. She looked as nervous as I felt. It wasn’t long before we heard the front door opening, and Quinton rushed into the family room.

“Skye, oh my God.” He held her for a long time.

“I’m sorry, Daddy,” Skye sounded more like a five-year-old than a seventeen-year-old.

Quinton held Skye at arm’s length and looked at her from her head to her feet. “Are you okay? What happened? Where were you?” He asked question after question, not giving her time to answer any of them.

“Let’s go sit,” Mama suggested.

“Where’s Lance?” I asked, looking toward the door.

“He left. He said he’ll call you later,” Quinton said, holding Skye’s hand and walking her to the family room with Mama and me following behind.

Skye repeated the story to Quinton, and the more she talked, the tighter his lips became. Skye finished speaking, and Quinton sat quietly, as if his mind needed time to register everything she’d said.

“Have you lost your mind?” Quinton practically leaped from the sofa.

I jumped, then held my chest. My heart raced, pounding against my rib cage as if it was trying to break free. Quinton stood over Skye. His finger aimed at her. His voice boomed throughout the room, causing my body to tremble uncontrollably.

“Stop. Please stop,” I shouted over Quinton. My plea drew the attention of everyone in the room.

Mama came over to me and placed her hand on my back. “It’s okay, baby,” she whispered.

Skye’s eyes had gone from sorrow to shock.

Even Leah looked like she was too afraid to move.

I probably should’ve apologized for startling them, but I wasn’t sorry.

I just needed him to stop. Watching Quinton—his anger mirrored the aggression I had once endured from Adam.

It was too painful. I understood that Quinton’s words were out of love and fear, but I didn’t want Skye to feel that kind of love. There had to be another way.

“Go to your room,” Quinton told Skye.

When she left, he broke down in Leah’s arms. “I couldn’t stop thinking that I’d never see her again,” he cried.

We all cried. The fear of losing someone we love was very real, and it was something that we all needed to figure out how to live with.

I wiped my eyes. “May I go and talk with Skye?” I asked Leah and Quinton.

“Of course.” Leah led me upstairs.

We’d just stepped onto the landing when she stopped and turned to me. “Tonight was one of the scariest nights of my life,” Leah said.

“Mine too.”

“But the minute I saw Mom, I knew everything was going to be okay. Mothers have a way of making their children feel that way.”

I nodded in agreement.

“Anyway, as I’m sure you’ve figured out, things aren’t great between Quinton and me at the moment, which is what brought us to where we are now.

” Leah glanced behind her toward the bedroom doors, then back at me.

“If you didn’t ask to come up, I would’ve suggested it because, like I said, mothers have a way of giving us hope that we can’t seem to find for ourselves.

Skye needs that right now.” Leah took my hand in hers and then led me to Skye’s bedroom door.

“Thank you,” I said before she turned and left.

I stood in front of Skye’s door with my eyes closed. Leah’s words had planted themselves in the deepest part of my soul, and from them sprouted the thickest, strongest roots of hope and love and peace. I knocked on Skye’s door.

“Come in,” Skye said so softly that I almost didn’t hear her.

I pushed the door open and stepped inside the room. The space was bathed in a soft purple glow that came from a string of lights that were around the upper edges of the wall.

Skye sat cross-legged on her bed, hugging a pillow in front of her. “Do you hate me too?” she asked.

My heart dropped that she would even think that. “I couldn’t hate you even if I tried. You did scare us, though. I don’t understand why you’d do that to your dad and Teeah, and Gran. You know what they went through when I was taken.”

Skye played with a loose string on her pillowcase. “I wasn’t thinking about that. I know I should’ve been, but ...”

“You were angry,” I finished for her. “May I sit?” I asked, walking farther into the room.

Skye nodded.

“I’m sorry for what I said at Gran’s.” She looked at me when I sat on the side of her bed. “I don’t even know why I said it. You didn’t have anything to do with whatever Daddy and Teeah are going through.” She narrowed her eyes. “Do you?” she asked.

“To be honest, I don’t know. So much is happening, and I’m finding it hard to keep up.”

“Tell me about it.” Skye rolled her eyes. “I want things to be the way they used to be.” She widened her eyes. “I mean, the way they used to be, and you still be here with us.”

“I get it. Listen, I may not agree with the way your dad was talking to you, but I do agree with what he said. You have to think before you act. I’m sure your coach has told you that life is a lot like basketball.”

“Oh my gawd, how many times have I heard that speech.” Skye groaned.

“I think they all use it.” I laughed. “But they’re right.

To win in life, like on the court, you have to think before you move, because sometimes you can make a decision that can change your whole life.

Unlike that”—I pointed to her phone—“you can’t go back and edit.

” I smiled, remembering her filming a video at Mama’s house and how many times she kept redoing it until she got it right.

“I understand,” Skye said. “I wish life did have an edit option. I always wondered what it would’ve been like if you were here.”

“I do, too, but I’m here now, and I want to spend as much time with you as I can,” I told her.

Skye moved her pillow, threw her legs over the bed, then sat right next to me. “I’d like that a lot.” She laid her head on my shoulder.

I had no idea what heaven felt like, but I was pretty sure it had to be very close to what I was feeling in that moment.