Page 94 of No One Aboard

Francis smiled, all too pleased. “Categorically.”

“Right, I get it,” said Tia. “We’re prisoners because you kidnapped us, right? Hilarious.”

Rylan had gone gray, and Lila almost smacked her daughter across the face. Couldn’t she see how this was affecting her brother?

“Tia. Bed. Now.”

Again, Tia didn’t look her way.

“Listen to your mom,” Francis said like he was playing a father on television. Like he had a paunch and beard and a waggling finger.Listen to your mother, now.

“My love,” Lila said, stepping right into her daughter’s view. “Go lie down. The birthday fairy—”

“What is going on, Dad?” Tia shouted over Lila’s head. “What have you been ordering Alejandro around to do? What’s happening in the bilges?”

Francis’s brows pinched. “The bilges?”

Lila clapped her hands in Tia’s face, and Tia startled. “Young lady. I want you in bed. Now.”

“Tia...” Rylan pleaded.

Finally, Tia looked at Lila, and the battle shifted to center on them.

“Why are you always defending him?”

Just a few more hours, Lila thought, her core clenched.Everyone needs to remain calm for just a few more hours.

“Darling, I’m de-escalating. There is no point in this right now.”

Tia whipped her head back and forth furiously. “It’s not about there being a point. The point is that we don’t let him get away with this. He’s taking us somewhere! And either you’re a victim too and you’re standing by, or you’re part of it! Either way you’re letting it happen.”

Lila wished she could see some of herself in this fierce and fiery young woman. Maybe their eyes were the same shape and shade (almond and black-cherry soap). Maybe their complexion was similar enough to be a gradient in a paint catalog (natural linen to sand dollar). But if Lila hadn’t been there when the doctor pulled a slippery infant out of Lila’s body, she’d be hard-pressed to find evidence that this girl was her own.

Tia was right that Lila didn’t know anything about a plan. But she was wrong to think her mother was standing by, that she ever just stood by. Tia didn’t know a thing about her. She’d never bothered to.

“Bed,” Lila said. “I am no longer asking.”

Tia snorted, nostrils flared like some beast’s while Rylan cowered behind her. Lila felt momentarily ill looking at the two of them, at the things she’d created.

“You’re letting him ruin this family,” Tia spat as her closing remark, before turning on her heel with Rylan. They crossed the threshold of their bedroom.

Lila stepped after them. She was so very sick of letting other people get the final word.

“Better thanleavingthis family, isn’t it? It takes a certain commitment to ruin a thing, don’t you think, lovey? Takes nothing at all to leave it behind.”

Rylan stared at Lila in openmouthed horror. Even Francis had the decency to blink back his surprise. Lila took off her sun hat and fanned herself free of the heat that bloomed in her face.

“Sleep tight,” she told her children before reaching out and closing their door for them.

Francis followed behind her as she stalked to the safety of the salon.

“Some birthday surprise,” he commented.

Lila wasn’t having it. She would put him in his place too, if necessary.

“You know I had plans, Francis. I had gifts and guests lined up for the twins’ birthday. I had a hair appointment scheduled for this morning, an audition next week, and a trip with a friend.”

Francis leaned against the wall, his full attention fixed on her. Had he taken that as an accusation? She hoped so. It was.