***
Maura was talking to me. I don’t know how long I sat on the floor in that hallway before she showed up. When Brynna returned to the group, I’m sure Maura immediately began searching for me. Knowing my sister’s cruel tendencies, she knew that I would be in need of comfort. But she never could have imagined what I had just learned.
“Darling, sit up. Come on. That’s it.”
After I had crumpled to the ground, I had slid sideways so that I was lying on my side at the base of the wall. Anyone who walked by me would assume that we had broken open some celebratory bottles of champagne while they were all still sleeping, and I was just a sad, drunk girl who would pass out eventually and be out of everyone’s hair. But obviously, Maura knew better.
I’ll admit that I was giving her no help; her small hands were attempting to lift the full weight of my body. But she was strong when she needed to be and was eventually able to maneuver me into a sitting position. I felt her hands on my face and her thumbs wiping my tears away.
“What happened, darling? What did she say? Whatever it was, you know she didn’t mean it. She’s just…” Maura sighed and moved my hair away from my face with both of her hands. “That’s just who she is, right? You know that.”
“Mom and Dad aren’t here, Maura.” I told her.
Her expression fell; she was as stunned by the revelation as I had been.
“She left them behind.”
While she had been shocked before, now she was downright horrified. Who wouldn’t be? The child she had raised had finally snapped and committed a foul, sinful act. She had left two people she was supposed to love unconditionally behind to die on Earth because she felt they were unworthy of being saved. In short, she had played God. There was no way Maura couldn’t be horrified, as she was seeing for the first time, clear as day, that Brynna was evil through and through.
I thought Maura was going to leave me. I thought she was going to storm after Brynna and scream at her all the things that I had already screamed. But she didn’t. We sat on the floor in silence for several minutes.
“I knew she was hiding something. She’s worse when she’s hiding something. God, with that damn Rachel Lilien, she was unbearable. But maybe we’re not giving her enough credit. Maybe she tried to save them, and they didn’t believe her.”
I looked up at her, saying nothing. My expression forced her to rethink that hypothesis very quickly.
“But she doesn’t hate them, Violet. I know that she doesn’t. They have their issues, yes. But she could never do something like that. She could never have left without telling them what was going on. I know that she blames them for Rachel’s death. She thinks your father hatched some scheme to shut her and that man up before they could drop some terrible bombshell about your mother, but you and I both know that’s utterly ludicrous, and she does, too! She couldn’t leave them behind because of Rachel, because she knows that they weren’t involved. She has to know that.”
“She has always hated them, Maura. Long before Rachel dropped dead. I had my issues with them, too. But I never could have left them to die!”
“Of course not. Alright, listen to me,” She grasped my hands, and I looked up at her, “I know this is difficult, but we’re going to get through this. We’ll deal with this when we get there, okay? Right now, we just have to make it to Pangaea. Then, we’ll grieve, we’ll be angry. We’ll do whatever we need to do to heal from this. Whatever you do, do not tell Penny.”
“How are we going to explain why Mom and Dad aren’t here?”
“We’ll tell her that they’re meeting us on Pangaea. She’s only four, darling. She’ll believe it. Then, once we’re there, we’ll tell her everything. You have to think about it this way, Vi: We’re stuck on this ship for weeks. There is nowhere to get away from each other. If you spend this entire time hating Brynna, you are going to drive yourself mad. So, you just have to put it away for right now. I know that is so hard. It’s unfair to ask this of you. But even though this ship is large, and there are some places to get away, there aren’t enough. Do you know what I mean?”
I nodded.
“I’ll never forgive her for this, Maura.” I whispered as new tears fell. “You know that, don’t you?”
Maura nodded, and I saw tears glistening in her eyes, too.
“I wish that wasn’t the case.” She said as calmly as she could, but I could hear that her voice was about to break. “But I know that it is.”
“Does Elijah know?”
Maura wiped at her eyes and nodded.
“Don’t expect him to be angry. He’s shocked, and he will grieve for them, but he won’t be angry like you are.”
“Are you angry, Maura?”
I looked at her now, thinking that she would lie in order to alleviate my own fury at Brynna. What we needed more than anything was unity. We were traveling through space to an alien planet where we would be forced to start our lives from scratch. In that time of uncertainty, we needed what we knew. We needed to keep the people we had always known close, as they were the only familiar things that we would ever have again. They were the only reminders of our first world.
But Maura nodded in response to my question, those tears I had seen in her eyes finally streaming down her face. A soft sob escaped her, and she covered her mouth to stifle the next that was sure to come. I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around her, crying again. I needed her more than ever now that my parents were permanently gone from both worlds.
“If I would have known,” Maura sobbed, “I would have stayed.”
I nodded, surprised at my own agreement.
“I would have stayed, too.”