Chapter 41

 

After leaving the machine, I threw off my hoodie and Raven and I ran out the front door with just enough time to thank Kelly and tell her that we’d let her know how things turned out. It wasn’t the best way to leave someone’s house, but we had something important to do. Dina’s trial was scheduled to begin in about 24 hours and Raven and I still had the evidence. Even by Strangetown standards, we were cutting it close.

We ran toward the main road in order to get to Kalena’s office. We knew the way, but the problem was getting there. We couldn’t run all the way, but we didn’t have a car either.

Right as we approached the main road a person riding a bicycle darted in front of me and I had to stop in my tracks. Unfortunately, I had built up so much momentum that I tripped over myself and fell, crashing into the bike on the way down. The girl riding it had gotten off just in time, and when I picked myself up I saw that it was Joanna.

“Joan, are you okay? What are you in such a hurry for?” she asked.

“We need to get the evidence for Dina’s trial to Kalena‘s office,” Raven explained.

“But the trial‘s tomorrow,” Joanna said.

“That‘s why we‘re running,” I told her.

“You don‘t have to run there,” Joanna said. “Take my bike. I‘ll walk there and pick it up later.”

“Are you serious?” I asked.

“If it means Dina goes to jail, I‘m more than happy to help you out,” Joanna told us.

“Thank you so much Joanna,” I said as Raven and I got on the bike.

“You‘re welcome,” Joanna said. “Oh, and Joan?”

“Sorry,” I told her, taking off on the bike, “It‘ll have to wait till later. We need to get there as soon as possible.”

We rode toward Kalena’s office, the wind from the coming storm blowing against my face. I could feel a pain in my cheek, but I put it out of my mind in order to control the bike. We were in our usual spots with me in the seat and Raven standing behind me. We pulled up to the office building, and locked the bike nearby.

Once inside, we slowed down to a walk. I hadn’t realized how much energy I had used getting to the office until I started catching my breath. It wasn’t a major setback - I was used to using that much energy for longer amounts of time.

By the time we got to the reception room of Kalena’s office, it was impossible to tell that we had raced over there. The secretary recognized us and pointed us in the direction of a small door down the hall from the office. We went in to find Mortimer and Bella sitting in a small waiting room.

“We got it,” I told them. I sat down in a chair across from them.

“Did you run all the way here?” she asked us with a shocked look on her face.

“No,” I told her. “We ran into Joanna and we used her bike to get here.”

“For the last time, tell her to cancel,” came Kalena’s voice from right outside the door. “I never left that time slot open,” she said to herself. “You‘d think…” She turned around and saw Raven and me in the room.

“We got the evidence,” Raven told her.

“Bring it into my office,” Kalena told us. “I‘ll be there in a minute. I have to settle something first.”

As I stood up to go, Raven turned around to face me.

“You should stay here with them,” she said. I nodded. I wasn’t going to argue with her. She never suggested something unless it was a good idea. She took the evidence and left the room as I sat back in my seat.

“Are you okay?” Bella asked me with a worried look on her face.

“Yeah, I‘m fine,” I said, brushing my hand against the spot on my cheek that had hurt on the way over. “I‘ve spent longer…” I stopped when I looked at my hand. My fingers were covered in a red fluid. I quickly touched a different part of my hand to the same spot and found the fluid on there as well. I was bleeding.

“Don‘t touch it,” Bella told me. She turned to Mortimer. “Get a wet towel so I can help her, will you?”

As Mortimer left the room, Bella looked at my face.

“It looks bad,” she said. “I think riding a bike against that wind made it worse. You didn‘t know you were cut, did you.” I shook my head. “Do you know when you would have gotten it?”

“It must have been when I fell over Joanna‘s bike,” I told her as she handed me some tissues.

“Press this on it,” she said. She put the tissues in my clean hand and guided me toward the cut. I held the wad of tissues to my cheek and cleaned my other hand with a few more.

Mortimer came back in the room and gave Bella a damp paper towel.

“Use this to wash it out, okay?” I nodded, took the paper towel and placed it on my face. As soon as the water touched the cut, it began to sting. “It‘s all right,” Bella told me. “It‘ll hurt for a little bit. How was your trip?”

“It was exciting,” I said through the pain in the side of my cheek. “We almost got caught trying to get one thing, but we got it all in time to spend an afternoon at the beach.” Bella nodded.

“I knew you could do it,” she said.

“Thanks.” I smiled at her and she smiled back.

“Well that‘s over with,” Raven said as she came back in the room. “Kalena went to put the evidence somewhere. She‘ll be back in a minute.”

“Hey, Raven,” I said, turning around to face her, “Why didn‘t you tell me my face was cut open?”

“Because that wasn‘t the most important thing we had to do,” she said. She went to my side and Bella went back across the room to sit with Mortimer. I took the wet paper towel off my face. Raven reached for the cut, her hand emitting a light blue glow. My face felt warm, and it tickled a little bit, but when Raven had finished, I got up and looked in a mirror. The cut was gone, with no scar or anything.

“Good as new,” I said, “like always. Thanks.”

“Did you show them the video yet?” Raven asked.

“No, I didn‘t.” I reached in my bag and pulled out the camera. But when I looked in my hand I realized I had the Polaroid instead of the digital camera. “Oops, wrong camera,” I said as I put it on the floor and pulled out the correct one.

“I don‘t even remember the last time I saw one of those,” Bella said.

“Anyway,” I said, taking a seat beside her, “we got this on our visit to Pleasantview. It might be a little unsettling but we think you need to see it.” I set up the camera to show the video of Dina talking to the alien. “Now how do you… oh here it is.”

I hit the play button and gave Bella the camera. I couldn’t see what was on the screen but I did see her take Mortimer’s hand. When she couldn’t watch it anymore, she rested her head on Mortimer’s shoulder. He put the camera on the seat next to him and let go of her hand to give her a hug. She wasn’t crying, but she looked like she could burst into tears at any minute.

“I‘m sorry,” I told Bella.

“You were right,” she said. “We needed to see that.”

“It‘s okay, honey,” Mortimer told her. “It‘s going to be all right. It‘s okay to feel bad. I feel just as bad as you do.”

“There was one thing that Dina couldn‘t take away,” Bella told him. She lifted her head slightly. “The fact that I love you. I know it was there even when I couldn‘t remember who I was. It was inside me waiting for me to remember it. And now that I‘m with you again, I know that it will never change.”

“You‘re right,” Mortimer said. “I love you, Bella. I always have, and I always will.” And then he kissed her, taking their minds off all of the bad things for a moment or two. They continued to hold each other close after they parted. They no longer looked upset. They were both smiling.

“On a lighter note,” I said, “we took a small detour while we were in Pleasantview. You know that place that you told Anne and Amanda about - the one where you first kissed?” Bella’s smile got bigger and her face seemed to brighten.

“You really went there?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I told her. “We were passing by the park so I figured why not.”

“You know, honey,” Bella said, turning to face Mortimer as he caressed her hand, “we should take Anne there sometime.”

“Do you think she would like it?” Mortimer asked her.

“I‘m sure she‘d think it‘s romantic,” Bella replied. “That‘s what she said the other night about the way we kiss.”

“Why do you think she likes to watch us kiss so much anyway?”

“It‘s a security thing,” Bella told him. “She‘s spent her whole life watching you put up with Dina. She enjoys seeing us together because she knows it makes you happy. She likes seeing you happy.”

“It also makes her happy to know that I‘m finally with the woman I love again,” he said.

“Yes,” Bella agreed, “that too.”

“We have a problem.” We all turned toward the direction of the voice to find Kalena standing in the door way. “I just got a call from the prison. Apparently, Dina‘s nowhere to be found.”

“She escaped?” Bella asked. Kalena nodded.

“Well that‘s not suspicious,” I said sarcastically. This was great. If nobody could find Dina than there was no way to convict her and send her to jail. That couldn’t happen. We wouldn’t let that happen. We had not gotten all of that evidence for nothing.

Raven and I looked at each other, and I knew we were thinking the same thing.

“We‘ll go find her,” I told Kalena.

“But how would you know where she is?” she asked.

“I can sense things,” Raven told her. “I should be able to find her location.”

Kalena looked relieved. “Then we‘re in luck again.”

 

***

 

I paced around the hallway as Raven concentrated on finding Dina’s location. A lot of things had gone missing lately - the evidence, the teleporter, and now Dina herself.

“Did you find her yet?”

“No.”

“Did you find her yet?”

“No.”

“Did you find her yet?”

“Joan, I can‘t concentrate when you keep asking me that.”

“Sorry.” I left the hall and walked into the reception room. Bella and Mortimer were there, along with Joanna, who gasped when she saw me.

“Whoa!” she cried. “Where did your cut go? How did your face heal?”

“Never mind that,” I told her, “we‘ve got more important problems.”

“Like Dina?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said, “like her. Do you have any idea where she might be? You‘re the one that‘s good and finding missing people.” Joanna looked at me like she thought I must have been joking.

“I‘m one for one,” she said.

“Yes, but that one got you on the cover of Time, Newsweek and Scientific American,” I replied, counting the magazines off on my fingers. “Oh, and thanks again for letting us use your bike. We locked it out front.”

“I know,” she said. “I‘ll unlock it so you can use it again.”

“I found her,” Raven said as she came through the door.

“Where is she?” I asked.

“Somewhere in the middle of the desert,” Raven told me as we headed for the door. “I know how to get there.”

“Good luck,” Bella told me before we left.

“Don‘t worry,” I said. Then we went out the door.

 

Chapter 42

 

The smell of desert rain was the first thing I noticed when I left the building. The second was the rain. It was pouring down in sheets and being blown by the wind.

We took Joanna’s bike and took off down the street. The rain was slamming into me and I had to wear my sunglasses to keep the rain out of my eyes. I wished I hadn’t left my hoodie at Kelly’s.

Raven hadn’t said anything, which meant I had to keep going straight. We passed into the poorer side of town, then we left town altogether. We continued along the road until I saw a dirt and gravel path that spilt off.

“Turn here,” Raven said, and I moved the bike onto the path. We traveled for about another five minutes until we came to a unique area of the desert. It looked like any other flat patch of sand except for a hill into which a cave was cut. How that got into the desert, I had no clue.

“She‘s here,” Raven said. I got off the bike and ran toward the cave, ignoring the rain flying into my face. Once we got to the entrance, we looked inside to see Dina and a red headed woman of about the same age arguing with Don, then shove him onto some kind of pad. As soon as he made contact with it, he shimmered and then disappeared right before our very eyes. Dina had just shoved Don through the missing teleporter!

“That‘s what he gets for running around on us,” Dina told the red head. They both laughed. It was time to make our move.

“So, you think the solution to your problems is just to send them all away,” I said, making the typical superhero entrance line. “Well, you‘ve got another thing coming.” The two women turned around and saw Raven and I enter the cave. The red head looked shocked. Dina was not surprised.

“So, you managed to find us all the way out here,” she said smugly. “I figured you would.”

“Well duh,” I said. “You‘re hideout‘s a huge mountain in the middle of the desert. Kinda hard to miss.” Dina’s wicked smile dropped like a rock.

“Do I look like I want advice from you?” she asked.

“It doesn‘t matter,” Raven told her. “The fact is, we‘ve caught you.”

Dina turned around to face the red head, and I could tell that their hair was dry. They must have come here before the start of the storm.

“I‘ll take care of this,” Dina told her.

“But Dina,” the red head protested, “you don‘t know how to fight.”

“Just shut up, Nina!” Dina snapped. “I‘m wondering why I wasted that one phone call on you.”

Dina charged at us but we stepped aside, sending her running out of the cave and into the pouring rain. We ran after. Now I would finally get my chance to punch her in the face.

When I got close to her, I tried a direct attack. Bad idea. She blocked my throw effortlessly and then sent one of her high heels right into my shin. I fell on the sand and then got back up to see Raven try to land an attack, but Dina wouldn’t let her.

We needed a new strategy. Dina knew how to fight. She blocked every move we made. And any time she made her own moves, I was quick to evade. I stood my ground and was about to deliver a windmill kick to her hips when I saw her fist collide with my shoulder. I took advantage of her success and finished the kick and in response she sent another punch my way. I blocked it, then used the momentum from the movement to send my fist into her face.

I backed off while Raven telekinetically threw a giant rock at Dina. She just barely avoided it, and was coming back for us. Raven picked me up and we flew towards Dina. Raven released me so that I could launch an airborne attack on her. Instead, Dina caught me in midair and hurled me the other way, sending me flying backwards through the rain. I saw what looked like the hood of a trunk of a car pass me overhead, and then I felt myself slam into someone.

I looked up and saw Bella’s face and realized she had caught me.

“Are you okay?” she asked me.

“Joan just flew into the car,” said Anne, who was standing next to her.

“I‘m fine,” I said as I got to my feet. I looked around and found out that we were sitting in the hatch of Mortimer’s car. He was sitting in the drivers seat, looking at us. “Wait a minute, what are you doing here? How did you get here?” I asked.

“Anne knew Dina was here,” Bella said.

“Dina must have taken her here before,” Mortimer added.

“So we asked her to show us so the police could follow us,” Bella continued. “They should be here soon.”

Raven dropped out of the sky and landed outside of the car.

“Are you okay?” she asked me.

“Yeah I‘m fine,” I told her.

“Good. Dina probably thinks we gave up,” Raven said.

“So we should hit her while she still thinks she won,” I told her. She nodded. I turned to Bella. “We gotta go,” I told her. “And thanks for the catch.”

“Don‘t mention it.”

Raven took off and I was about to follow her when I saw an umbrella in the hatch.

“Can I use this?” I asked, picking it up.

“Sure,” Bella said.

I jumped out of the hatch and started running.

“Wait,” I heard Anne’s voice say. Without stopping, I turned around and saw Anne following me out of the trunk and into the rain. Bella jumped out as well and ran after her.

As I ran, I looked behind me several times to make sure they were all right. When I was a few yards away from the car the wind picked up, causing Anne to stop. She looked scared. Bella ran up to her and took the child in her arms, pulling Anne close to her chest.

“Don‘t ever do that again,” she told Anne as the wind blew their hair all over the place. “Your father‘s going to be worried sick about both of us.”

Just then the wind started blowing sand across the desert and we were all blanketed in the sticky, wet stuff. Bella put Anne’s face against her chest, protecting the girl from the rain and sand.

“Stay there!” I told them. “You‘ll get lost if you try to move in this!”

“I know,” Bella said. She got down, shielding Anne from the stinging sandstorm. “What about you?”

“Don‘t worry,” I told her. “We know what we’re doing.”

I took off towards Raven, who had stopped a few feet ahead of me.

“We have to keep going,” she told me when I reached her. “Dina‘s that way.”

I extended the umbrella and we ran in the direction that Raven had pointed. The sand became so thick that we couldn’t see anything. But if we couldn’t see, neither could Dina. It was the perfect time to attack.

We could see only a little bit through the sandstorm, but what I could see confirmed Raven was right. Dina had, in fact, thought we had given up. Using the cover of the sandstorm I ran toward her back and took a swing with the umbrella. I could feel the adrenaline surge through my body as I ignored the sand slamming into my face and swung the umbrella into her back. Dina fell down and looked behind her, but because of the sandstorm she couldn’t see who had hit her. Then another attack came from the opposite direction and Dina knew we were back.

She got back into the fight, grabbing some pipe thing that came from who knows where and used it to counter my umbrella attacks. We could hardly see each other in the sand storm but we could always tell when an attack was coming. Raven tried to attack her when she was defending herself but Dina blocked her as well. Then I pressed the button on the umbrella by accident and the whole thing popped up just as Dina was swinging the pipe towards me. It went through the umbrella, slicing a hole through the fabric. There was no way I could close it so I just tossed it to the side. I was now unarmed, while Dina still had the metal pipe.

Then the sandstorm began to clear up. As Raven and I evaded all of Dina’s attacks we could see more and more of what was going on. Dina was swinging the pipe like it was sword. Raven tried to give her a kick from the air, but Dina held the pipe out in front of her and Raven’s foot crashed into that instead and she fell out of the sky.

The rain was still pouring, but the sand was now settled, so I could see Dina’s next attack clearly. She swung the pipe towards me. I reached out my hand and caught it, stopping the swing. I then forced it out from Dina’s grasp, turned around in a circle and slammed it into her side. She toppled over, but not before hitting Raven again. She got back to her feet, but Raven and I both noticed that it took some effort on her part.

We made our move. Dina and I ran towards each other and I jumped out of the way right before she reached me. Raven came in from behind and pushed her down. While she held Dina in that position, I grabbed her arm and brought it behind her back. Raven took it and I did the same to her other arm. Raven tied them together using telekinetic energy, and I made sure that Dina didn’t get up.

I looked up to see how Bella and Anne were doing. Mortimer had driven his car to their location. He opened the hatch, using the hood as a shelter from the rain. Bella and Anne ran under the it as Mortimer came out of the car. He embraced them both, not caring that they were drenched and covered in sand. He kissed Anne, and then Bella, and they went back in the car.

The police arrived and several officers rushed to our location.

“So how does it feel to get your butt whooped by two 19 year-old girls?” I asked Dina.

She didn’t answer. She just scowled as the police came to take her away.

 

Chapter 43

 

Once the police secured Dina and scoped out the cave, we entered Mortimer’s car, soaking wet. Mortimer, Bella and Anne were huddled together in the hatch. Bella and Anne had gotten cleaned off and dried, so now they were just sitting wrapped in Mortimer’s suit jacket - he had taken it off to keep them warm.

When Bella saw us, she got up and wrapped the rest of the jacket around Anne. She grabbed some blankets from a pile and gave them to us.

“Dry off with these,” she told us. “Don‘t worry about getting the car dirty, we‘ll wash it out later.” We dried ourselves off and Bella took the wet blankets and threw them into a bag. “Here are some dry ones if you want to wrap up.” She handed us two dry blankets. “The police told us we have to stay here until the storm leaves. It‘s too dangerous otherwise.”

“How long do these storms last,” I asked, pulling the blanket around myself.

“This type of storm could take hours,” Bella said. “It‘s different every time.”

Raven and I sat down in the hatch. Bella went back to where Mortimer and Anne were sitting across from us. She didn’t share the jacket with Anne again. She just sat back next to Mortimer and he put his arm around her and pulled her close to him. I wondered if the embrace felt more intimate because instead of the suit jacket, Bella was cuddled right up against his dress shirt.

Anne was sitting in her father’s lap, resting her head against his chest and crying.

“My mom‘s a horrible person,” she said as Mortimer used his free hand to stroke her hair. I could tell he had no idea what to say to her. He knew he needed to comfort her, but he didn’t want to lie and say it wasn’t true.

“Anne,” he said, “your mother needs help, and she‘ll get it when she‘s in jail.”

“But they put bad people in jail,” Anne said.

“Honey, those people are in jail so they can get help,” Mortimer told her. Bella put her arms around the girl and pulled her in between them.

“Your father‘s a wonderful person. He‘s kind, caring, smart, thoughtful,” Bella told her, giving Mortimer a kiss on the cheek after every compliment, “And he loves us both very much.” She put her arms around Anne and Mortimer embraced them both.

“Bella,” Anne said.

“Yes, what is it?” Bella replied.

“I love you.”

“Oh, honey, I love you too,” Bella said as she pulled Anne into a hug and gave her a kiss.

“Is there any food in here?” Anne asked. “I‘m hungry.”

“There are snacks in the bag next to us,” Mortimer told her.

They let go of Anne and she leaned over to a brown paper bag. It began to get dark while she was looking in it. A huge cloud formed over the car blocking out the light. It was another sandstorm. Before long it got so dark that I couldn’t see anything. I heard Anne shout “Daddy!” The poor girl must have been terrified. The only way she could sense anyone’s presence was by touch.

“I‘m right here, Anne,” came Mortimer’s voice. “I‘ve got you. And Bella‘s here too.”

“We‘re both here to protect you,” Bella said. And then it got quiet. I had to wait for my eyes to adjust to find out it was because Mortimer and Bella were engaged in a heartfelt kiss. Surrounded by a blanket of darkness, they could feel each other’s presence as their lips moved together while they sat in an embrace.

Once they could see each other, they broke off. Mortimer had one arm around Anne who was munching on some crackers, and he and Bella set her in between them as they snuggled together in the semidarkness.

“Bella,” Anne said as the sand storm outside began to wane and it got lighter, “who was you‘re best friend when you were a kid?”

“Your father,” Bella replied.

“Really?” Anne asked.

“Honey,” Bella told her, “we‘ve been close ever since we were your age.”

“Anne,” Mortimer said as both he and Bella snuggled her close to them, “we want you to know that you‘re an important part of our family and we wouldn‘t want it any other way.”

Anne smiled and gave them both kisses as they held her and we spent the time telling her funny stories and laughing as the storm cleared and sunlight shone through the windows.

 

***

 

We finally got to change clothes once we got to the police station. I tore off my wet clothes and was so happy to put on a dry t-shirt and cotton shorts. After changing, we told the police about everything we had seen go on in the cave.

Bella and Anne came in a few minutes later in fresh cloths. Bella was wearing a t-shirt with “I love my grandkids” on it.

“Anne found it,” she explained. “We both thought it was perfect.” Anne’s shirt was huge on her. It almost came down to her feet, but she was happy to be in something dry, and enjoyed twirling it around.

“I think we‘re all glad to be out of that storm,” Bella said as she took a seat next to Mortimer. We all nodded, and she turned her attention towards Raven and me. “So I guess it won‘t be long before you go home.”

“We‘re not going home,” I told her.

“What?” Bella said, a look of shock crossing her face.

“You know how we used that machine to go back to Pleasantview to get the evidence?” I asked. Bella nodded. “Well, that kinda messed up the temporal-space - whatever and now we‘re probably stuck here.” Bella shared a glance with Mortimer, and then looked back at us.

“You didn‘t have to do that,” Bella said.

“Yeah,” I told her, “we did.”

“It wasn‘t really a choice,” Raven said. “We had to make sure Dina went to jail.”

“Not just as superheroes,” I added, “but as your friends. We weren’t gonna let you down.”

“So what are you going to do?” Bella asked.

“We don‘t really know,” I told her.

“I can try to find a way for us to get back home,” Raven said, “but we still might be stuck here.”

“You‘re amazing friends,” Bella told us. “As long as you‘re here, you‘ll always have a place to stay with us.” I smiled at her.

We heard the sound of a chair moving across the floor and turned in the direction of the noise. Anne had been entertaining herself by jumping off a chair and watching her huge t-shirt poof, and she had managed to push the chair back until it hit the wall.

“Honey, don‘t do that any more,” Bella told her.

The police woman came back and filled us in. Dina’s sister Nina had tried to run away in the cover of the sandstorm, but the police found her and hauled her in for questioning. They had figured out Dina had been up to, but they weren’t going to say anything until the whole family was there. It concerned them all.

A few minutes later, Alexander came in carrying Alice followed by Randy and Amanda.

“Hey Amanda,” Anne said when they saw each other, “check this out!” She climbed on the chair and jumped off it again, showing Amanda how her shirt poofed.

“Cool!” Amanda said.

“Okay, that‘s enough,” Bella told them.

“Grandma, can I have a shirt like yours that says I love my grandma on it?” Amanda asked when she saw Bella’s shirt. The police woman seemed shocked to find out that Bella had grandchildren.

Cassandra was the last one to come in, giving Amanda and Anne a big hug when she did. She must have come straight from work, because she was carrying a bag with her lab coat in it.

“I‘m sorry I couldn‘t get here faster,” she said, taking Alice from her brother, “but I couldn‘t leave work right away because someone stole a teleporter from one of the labs. ”

“Well guess what,” I told her. “We found it.”

“Really?” Cassandra asked. The police woman nodded her head. “Who took it?”

“Take one guess,” I told her. Cassandra shook her head.

“Here‘s what happened,” the police woman said. “We still don‘t know how she did it, but somehow Dina broke out of prison last night. We know from the girls that caught her that she had used her one phone call from prison to contact her sister, Nina Caliente, who was in town for the trial. And when Dina returned to her house, she walked in on her lover and Nina all over each other.”

“Oh my goodness,” Cassandra said. The lover was none other than Don, the man she used to be married to and the father of the six month old baby she was holding. She slumped over on the desk and used her free hand to support her head. Mortimer immediately took Alice from her, and Bella rushed over to comfort her.

“Cassandra, it’s going to be all right,” she said.

“Mom, are you okay?” Amanda asked. She ran over to her mother.

“I‘ll be fine, honey,” Cassandra said as she and Bella put their arms around the girl and gave her a kiss.

“Shall I continue?” the police woman asked. Cassandra nodded. “Well, after Dina and Nina found out that they were both having an affair with the same guy, Dina stole the teleporter and they arranged a secret meeting in the desert cave and shoved him in. Unfortunately, we don‘t know where he is. They reset location on the teleporter after they shoved him in.”

Cassandra relaxed after she heard that, probably because she was comforted by the fact that Don was out of her life for good.

The police woman got a call and had to leave for a few minutes, but we stayed in the room and waited for her to return. Alice knew Cassandra had been upset and was becoming a little fussy. Mortimer had been comforting her, but he knew that Alice needed her mother, and so he let Cassandra take her.

“I‘m okay, Alice,” she said and then gave her daughter a kiss. Alice’s face brightened and she looked happy again.

“I love you, sweetheart,” Bella told her, also giving her a kiss. “It says so on my shirt.” That made Amanda, Anne, and even me start laughing.