“Did you know?”
I froze.
“Know what?”
“That we were alive.”
“No.”
His face changed.
“Dad said…”
I closed my eyes.
“No.”
“I thought you drowned.”
“All four of you.”
“I buried empty coffins.”
Mason covered his face.
Jacob started crying.
Caleb looked furious.
Not at me.
At Daniel.
That moment ended whatever loyalty remained.
The reunion happened one week later.
The boys returned voluntarily.
Daniel did not.
He remained in custody pending legal proceedings.
At the airport, I stood behind a security barrier.
My knees shook.
Sophie held my hand.
Emma held Lily.
Then three figures appeared.
Caleb first.
He saw me.
Stopped.
Then ran.
Twenty years old.
Still my child.
He hit me so hard we almost fell.
I wrapped both arms around him.
He sobbed into my shoulder.
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
“You were fourteen.”
“I should have found a way.”
“You were fourteen.”
Again.
Until he believed me.
Mason hugged me next.
He whispered.
“I thought you knew.”
I cried harder.
“I didn’t.”
Jacob stood several feet away.
He looked uncertain.
He had been nine when he left.
Fifteen now.
Six years is most of his remembered childhood.
I opened my arms.
He hesitated.
Then walked into them.
Slowly.
He whispered.
“You smell the same.”
That sentence nearly
