Emmaline wasn’t sure how long she had sat in the waiting room. She supposed she was waiting to see when Mr. Delaney would come back out. But so far he was still in the room. Did that mean Mom was telling him the truth––all of it, or was she spinning some elaborate lie? The thought that Mom could be lying to a close family friend made her jolt up from the couch and march down the hallway.

  Mr. Delaney deserved to know the truth. So did Anna, for that matter. And Eric. Yeah, the more people who knew meant that the truth could get out to the whole world, but wasn’t that going to happen anyway? How long could they really keep this a secret with the way Michael was taken?

  As Emmaline arrived, she stopped in front of the glass door. In fact, the whole wall was glass, but a curtain had been pulled across so there was only a small gap at the door she could peer through. She did so now. Mom was sitting in her chair with arms crossed over her chest in a clear defensive position, while Mr. Delaney was sitting up straight in Emmaline’s chair with both hands in a white-knuckled gripped around the armrests and his face a blazing fire engine red.

  Oh, he was pissed.

  Emmaline snorted. “Join the club,” she muttered to herself.

  Satisfied that Mom wasn’t jerking their good friend around. Emmaline decided maybe now would be a good time to take a walk. She turned back down the corridor and did just that.

  Once they’d stabilized Dad after he’d arrived at the ER, the hospital was quick to move him into the ICU. Apparently, they needed the beds in the emergency room, and it also made it easier for Doc Williams to take over the care of his patient. But it required getting special permission to get inside the ICU, and Em didn’t want to have to go through that again, so she opted to walk the loop of rooms in the ICU wing.

  Thankfully, it seemed the hustle from earlier in the day had settled and the wing was quiet––very quiet. It was almost eerie. But moving felt good, so she made several rounds around, nodding at the few nurses she saw along the way. One nurse had asked if she was lost the second time around, but Em said she was just stretching her legs.

  On her fourth loop, she almost ran smack into Mr. Delaney as he stormed out of Dad’s room. She had to back away so as not to get run over. He had marched halfway down the hall before he stopped, turned around, and came back. He halted a short distance from her.

  “Emmaline, I just want you to know that if you need anything at all, I’m here for you. Please don’t hesitate to call.”

  “Thanks, Mr. Delaney.”

  He nodded, and looked like he wanted to say more, but thought better of it, and turned away and resumed his mad march toward the exit. Em stood there and watched for a moment and then walked back into the room. She then gave Mom a searching look as she entered the room. It was clear by her red face that she had been crying again.

  “So you told him?” Emmaline asked.

  “Yes,” Mom said.

  “All of it?” Em asked suspiciously.

  “As much as I thought was relevant.”

  Emmaline stepped further into the room, not sure she liked the sound of that. “What does that mean? What did you tell him?”

  Mom let out a long, frustrated sigh. “I told them about where the ship came from and why it was here. I told him that Arie was going to give himself up in Michael’s place, but Michael stopped him and went instead. I told him there was a high chance that Arie may never wake up again and why.”

  Tears streaked down her face, and she wiped them away. Emmaline felt herself nod as she moved toward her mom, relieved that she had told Mr. Delaney the truth. Em found herself hugging her mother, and her mother hugged her back. They stayed like that for a long time before Em pulled away.

  “He seemed really mad,” Em said.

  “He’s upset that your father and I didn’t tell him the truth sooner, but mostly, he’s upset about Michael. He knows how much this is going to break Anna’s heart.”

  “He’s not mad at Michael, is he? Michael was trying to save Dad. If he hadn’t done what he’d done––” but Em couldn’t finish that sentence. She didn’t have to. Mom knew.

  Her mother shook her head. “I think he’s mad at the situation more than anything.”

  “Oh.”

  Well, Emmaline could certainly understand that. She was mad too. Very mad, but what the heck could she do about it? What could any of them do about it? Nothing, not a damn thing, but miss Michael and hope that he could find a way to come back one day.

  Emmaline let some time pass before she asked the question on her mind since Mr. Delaney had shown up. “When are you going to call Eric?”

  Mom looked over at her purse. She’d put in on the small counter at the front of the room, where a sink and a biohazard trash can was located as well. She hadn’t even touched her purse since she had set it down. She stood up and walked over.

  “I suppose I better do that.”

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  She riffled through her purse and pulled out her iPhone, but it wasn’t the phone that caught Emmaline’s eye. On the portable table sat an object she was very familiar with. The light blue rectangular device sat face down with an MIT sticker showing for all to see.

  “Where did that come from?” Em asked.

  Mom looked up from scrolling through her phone. “What?”

  “That!” Em said, pointing to the device that looked like the owner had just set it down. “Michael’s phone.”

  “John picked it up when he was at the farm. He said the door was unlocked, so he went in and found it sitting on the couch. When he checked the whole house and walked the property and didn’t find anyone, he went back in to retrieve it.”

  Emmaline didn’t say anything. She couldn’t stop staring at Michael’s phone. That device being here without its owner felt like an exclamation mark at the end of an already very bad day. Her brother never went anywhere without his phone, not even to the bathroom. This, more than anything so far, made his leaving feel very real and final. Michael really was gone, and might never come back.

  She reached for the device with trembling fingers. It felt wrong to touch it, like disturbing something sacred, but she couldn’t help herself. The weight of it in her hand was so familiar—how many times had she snatched it from Michael to look at something he was showing her, or when she was teasing him?

  Em flipped it over, almost expecting a text notification to light up the screen. But it remained dark. Dead battery, probably. Or maybe it was switched off.

  “Yes, it’s me, Eric,” Mom said.

  Emmaline looked up. Her mom had the phone to her ear and her back to the counter, leaning on it. An expression of defeat on her face as she listened to what Eric was saying on the other end.

  “I know. I’m sorry. Things have been really crazy here.”

  “No, everything isn’t all right. I’m afraid that…” Mom hesitated as if searching for words, and then continued. “Well, a lot has been going on, and most of it I don’t think we should talk about on the phone, but I will say that your dad is in the hospital. He’s not doing well.” Mom paused to let Eric speak, and Emmaline wished she’d put it on the speakerphone so she could hear what her brother said.

  “Well, Doctor Williams is running more tests, but it appears to be a stroke. A pretty serious one. Your father has been unconscious since they brought him in and still is.”

  Again, Mom was silent as he spoke. Mom wasn’t telling him everything, but Emmaline could understand that she couldn’t be completely open on the phone. This really wasn’t a phone kind of conversation. So Em let the major gaps and half-truths go as she strained to hear what came next.

  “Well, there’s not much that can be done at this point, Eric, but if you want to see if you can get emergency leave to come home, then that’s up to you.”

  There was another long pause.

  “Michael isn’t something I can talk to you about right now.”

  “Because I can’t, Eric,” Mom looked like she was getting very frustrated.

  Emmaline could hear Eric’s raised voice on the other end, even though the words weren’t clear enough to be heard.

  “Well, then maybe you should come home. There are things I need to tell you.”

  “Alright. Yeah, I’ll do that. Send me the number and I’ll make the call.”

  “Okay.”

  “Yes, I will let you know if anything changes with your father.”

  “Alright, bye.” Mom pulled the phone from her ear and hung up the call. She looked like she’d aged a year just while on the phone.

  “So?” Emmaline asked.

  “He’s going to talk to his CO about getting emergency leave. He’ll let me know if it goes through.”

  Emmaline frowned. She suddenly very much wanted Eric home instead of with the United States Navy. He was supposed to be stationed in Virginia, but much of the time he was deployed elsewhere, often with very short notice, so even visiting him was a challenge.

  “You think they’ll give it to him?”

  Mom shrugged. “He says his team is scheduled to deploy again in two days, so that’s a factor. If he can’t get it before he leaves on the mission, then he’ll try for when he gets back.”

  Mom’s phone dinged, and she looked at the text. “Eric sent me a number to call. I need to make an official request to get the ball rolling, but I think after this maybe we should go home and get some rest. We can come back in the morning.”

  “Okay,” Emmaline said.

  She didn’t want to leave Dad, but it wasn’t like he was going anywhere. She was tired, and she felt a little sick to her stomach. But she wasn’t sure if that was from something she’d eaten or just the really crappy day she’d been having.

  Mom’s next call lasted a lot longer. She was put on hold twice, but finally she was able to state the emergency, then Eric’s name, the command he was stationed under, and then his social security number. Mom then hung up the phone and blew out a long breath.

  “Well, that’s done.”

  She looked around as if a little lost, then she walked over to the side of the bed. Her mother stood there for a long time looking down at Dad. There had been no change, no movement, not even a twitch. Only the beeping of the machine beside him that indicated that he was still alive.

  Emmaline went to stand beside her mother. “I wish he’d wake up,” she said in a whisper as she leaned against her mother for support.

  “Me too,” Mom whispered back, wrapping an arm around Em.

  They stood there for a long time before Mom leaned down and gave Dad a kiss on his cheek. When she pulled away, her eyes were glistening with tears. “Let’s go, Em. I think we both could use some rest.”

  “Yeah, okay,” Emmaline replied as she went to grab her purse.

  Mom did the same, and they exited the room. It wasn’t until they were halfway to the elevator that Emmaline realized she was still tightly clutching Michael’s phone.

  As they got into the car, Emmaline remembered the cabin in the woods. Mom started easing the Mustang out of the hospital’s garage, and Em asked her about it.

  “Are we going back to the cabin?”

  “Yes, to pick up our things. I think that the nurse you overheard was right about the Ethian ship leaving. They certainly would have made themselves known if they were still lurking around. And I don’t think anyone has linked that ship to our family. If they had, we would have heard about that by now too. So I don’t think there’s reason to stay there. But after we get our things, I do have another stop to make before we go home.”

  “What other stop?” She asked curiously, but she was mostly relieved that they would be going home instead of staying at the cabin in the middle of no-freaking-where.

  “Just a storage unit.”

  Emmaline scrunched up her nose. “Why in the world are we going there?”

  “I have to get something.”

  But Mom didn’t elaborate on what that something was, or why she thought it important enough to do when life as they knew it had been turned upside down.

  Em hadn’t realized how tired she was until she sat down in Mom’s car. It was already dark outside and knew it would be very late by the time they got home. She sighed in frustration. Her bed was soooo calling her right now. Emmaline laid her head back on the headrest, and despite all the turbulence of the day and the restlessness that had settled over her because of it, the gentle motion of the car eventually rocked her to sleep.