Chapter Seventeen
Amara told Kael on a Sunday morning, picking the kitchen on purpose — it felt like the safest room in the house, the one where nothing bad had ever happened to him.
She had run through it a dozen different ways the night before, standing in front of the bathroom mirror, trying to find words simple enough for a five-year-old and honest enough that he wouldn’t catch her in a lie later.
“You know how Rafael’s been coming around a lot?” she started, sitting across from him while he ate cereal that was mostly marshmallows, the fruit bits pushed to the side like always.
“He is bad at dinosaurs but he is getting better,” Kael said, matter-of-fact.
“Right. Well.” Amara took a breath. “Rafael and I are going to get married. Which means he is going to live with us. All the tim
