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When I come back, Hayzel and Milo are talking about school. She’s telling him that if anyone bothers him, he should tell us immediately, because his sister and aunt are overprotective and will punch the kid’s mom in the face to teach her how to raise a child properly.

Milo looks at me, laughing like it’s the funniest, safest thing he’s ever heard.

“She’s right,” I reply as I sit next to him, because I would. If anyone made him uncomfortable, I’d ruin a whole bloodline.

Edna returns a few moments later with the missing dishes, and we start eating dinner the way we always do when Dad isn’t home, waiting for us.

After a while, Hayzel nudges Milo’s shoulder. “Hey, Rey and I have something to tell you.”

Milo blinks up at us, confused as I reach for his little hand and start, “You know how I want us to leave one day? Have our own place? Just you and me.”

His face scrunches as he tries to follow. “Yeah, you said we’ll have a big garden.”

“Exactly, baby. But for that, I’m going to need a lot of money and a good job. And to get that, I’m going back to school. And Aunty Hayzel is coming with me. I’m going there in two days.”

“In my school?” He asks.

A small laugh escapes from me. “No, not yours, St. Ellesta.”

“That’s so cool!” His whole face lights up. “Are you happy, sissy?”

Happy.

If he needs me to be, then yeah, I can be that for him.

Across the table, Hayzel smiles at me, that keep-going smile she uses when she thinks I’m not giving myself enough credit, and then she mouths ‘don’t stop’.

“Yeah, I am. But I’m going to miss you. I won’t be here during the week. You’ll stay with Edna, and I’ll come see you every time I can, and I’ll be with you during the weekends.”

“It’s okay,” he says, shrugging. “Edna takes good care of me.”

Edna smiles softly. “Oh, Milo.”

I brush a curl of hair from his forehead, and for a second, I swear my chest folds in on itself.

“I know, baby, I know. But there’s something you must promise me. You can’t tell Dad about this. If he comes home on weekends, we pretend we stayed here all week. Okay?”

“Why? Is this a surprise for him too?” He asks, brows furrowing.

Guilt tugs at the back of my throat because I hate asking him to lie, but what I hate more is what telling the truth would do to us. “Yeah,” I say gently. “It’s a surprise. So, you have to keep it quiet, okay?”

He nods eagerly, his feet dangling off the chair as he holds out his little pinky.

“Pinky promise, Reya?”

I hook my finger with his and squeeze gently.

He trusts me completely. I have to be worth that trust. I must be.

“Pinky promise, baby.”

After that, we eat and talk for hours. Edna tells Milo what I used to do when I was little in her class, and apparently, it makes him laugh.

I used to crawl under the table when it got too loud around me and draw. She never stopped me from doing it either.

Hayzel also told us how she reacted when she found out she’d been accepted into the university. It’s crazy to think that it all started from one stupid ambition and an even stupider dream. The two of us in a school like that, at our age? After all those years of working and savings that led nowhere.

A few moments later, Milo’s head is already starting to fall onto my shoulder, his eyelids blinking slower. When I stand up, he almost slides off his chair on his own, curling against me out of pure habit. I pick him up; his arms wrapping around my neck, and he falls asleep before we even reach the hallway.