Page 36 of Best Laid Plans

“Okay, Citi,” I whisper, seeing how passionate she is about this. And she’s right, of course. Even if the world often beats into women that the buck usually starts and ends with us.

“I’m glad you’re back, Lil. I need you to rest up so I can kick your fucking ass,” Legs says, folding her arms.

Delphi sighs. “Really. She just saved a high school full of kids.”

“I didn’t really. I⁠—”

Delphi glares at me, so I shut up.

“Yeah, yeah.” Legs sighs and nudges me over. I make space for her to lie next to me.

“You missed a lot.”

“I know,” I say softly.

“You never met my son.”

I swipe a stray tear from my face. “I’m sorry.”

She tugs me into her arms. “If you ever run away again without telling us, we’ll shave your head.”

“That seems a little—” She yanks my hair. “Ouch. Okay, fine.”

She wraps her arms around me a little tighter, her voice thick with emotion. “I was so fucking worried.”

There is nothing I can say that will make it right. But maybe I should just go with the truth, split my guts open, and lay them bare for them all to see. And if they judge me, so be it. It’s not like I’m not judging myself.

I start at the beginning and tell them everything I told the guys in church, only I don’t share the finer details or how I felt. The women will already get it on a level the men just can’t.

“He gave you her face?” Citi hisses like she’s personally offended on my behalf.

I nod, playing with a strand of Legs’s hair. All of the women have piled onto the bed during my storytelling, each of them snuggled into each other, offering me the support I’d been so desperately craving but was too afraid to ask for.

“That’s fucked-up on a whole new level, and I’m the kid who got abducted.”

I snort with laughter. “I think we’re all a little fucked-up, but yeah. I didn’t want to believe it at first. I mean, I loved him. How could the man I loved do something so heinous to me?”

“Boy, do I get it.” Delphi sighs.

I reach out and give her hand a squeeze. “I was heartbroken, and then the numbness set in, quickly followed by denial and then anger.”

“You were grieving what you lost in him,” Tink whispers.

I shake my head. “I was mourning what I’d lost of myself. I already had so little. I’d spent my formative years not existing and then slowly becoming a ghost that most people walked right through. But he saw me, or I thought he did. Instead, all he saw was potential. And none of it was for my benefit.”

A tap at the door stops me. I turn as it opens and find Powers with an exasperated look on his face.

“She was supposed to be resting,” he chastises the others.

Tink rolls her eyes. “Does it look like we’re auditioning for a tampon commercial?”

He opens his mouth but then frowns. “Huh?”

We women laugh, all too familiar with those stupid adverts that think any of us feel like rollerblading or skydiving when our uteruses are trying to tear their way out of our bodies.

Tink sighs. “It doesn’t matter. It’s not funny if I have to explain it. How did you know we were here anyway?”

“Delphi told Theo, Citi told Star, Legs told Midas when she was handing Hero to him. It was only you who tried to come up with a cover story.”