35

Camila

I’ve chewed my thumbnail down to the quick. The skin splits, blossoming red. Hissing in pain, I shake my hand out, clenching my fingers. I have to quit this bad habit one of these days. I always do it when I’m stressed. And right now, I am very stressed.

After a fitful sleep in Asher’s bed, I woke with a nagging feeling in my head. Though walls and floors separate us, I keep picturing my mother in the house. Did she sleep okay last night? Did Layla meet her, get food for her? How is she getting along compared to my first night?

And on more than one occasion, I wonder if she heard us last night.

Her arrival left me flushed with joy. But after enough hours, the happiness faded to something bleaker. There’s something she said yesterday that I can’t shed.

Sleep didn’t erase it. If anything, the time passing has made my curiosity sharper.

Why did Mom react like that on hearing Yannick’s name?

I replay the scene over in my head. My mother was hanging on my every word when we spoke, s