Finding Home | ✔️

Epilogue

Asher sat next to the stairs, in the same position the night we overheard about our 'grandparents', staring at nothing in particular. He did not eat his dinner which I thought was relatively strange since he enjoyed Shepherd's Pie. I slowly inched my way towards him before realizing Sandy was sitting next to him, remaining silent. I sat just below them but still in visual view.

He looked up at her, finally noticing her presence. "I don't understand." He paused momentarily, as he concentrated. "There was this lady that I felt like I knew. The longer I looked at her the more I felt scared but I don't understand."

Sandy's brown eyes searched his blue ones before leaning forward and hugging him. He's hug slowly turned into an embrace of tears as he wept, "I'm scared, mommy."

She slowly rubbed his back before rubbing away his tears with her thumb. "Hey, it's going to be okay, Asher. You have Daniel, your brother, your big sister, and I here," she soothed, as she slowly wiped away a tear of her own.

He nodded slowly before snuggling into her comforting embrace once more. He seemed to relax, as she rubbed his back. Sandy's eyes meant mine and I smiled up at her. She smiled back before picking him up and disappeared behind the wall, no doubt to put him to bed.

I slowly made my way up the stairs just as Sandy to close the boys' bedroom door closed. A ping of jealously caused my heart to ache from their moment for I was the one that comforted them for years. Sandy took quick note of my silence and said, "You can go in and-"

"No." She blinked and I paused at my statement.

She released her hand off the doorknob and nodded. "Oh okay."

"No, because you are his mother as... you are mine and Ollie's. I'm sorry for the way I treated you and Daniel when we first arrived. You were willing to take us in as your own... take me in. A teenager! And I treated you guys like shit," I told her, as I shifted my footing.

Sandy smiled and patted my shoulder. "First off, language. Second, if anyone should be apologizing it's me. I judged you straight off the bat without allowing you to settle in first. Daniel helped me see through it and I am so glad I did. You've been an amazing sister and you've grown so much these past few weeks that I am embarrassed to even have thought wrong about you, North." She wiped a tear away before chuckling to herself, "I swear I am not this emotional. Can I give you a hug?"

Wiping away small tears, I nodded before giving her a hug. Asher may be right about a motherly hug. It felt warm, safe, and unfamiliar... but a good unfamiliar.

"Is everything okay?" Daniel asked. He closed the bedroom door slowly with his pajamas and robe on.

I stepped back and nodded. "Yeah."

The doorbell rang and the three of us froze from the top of the stairs. Daisy trotted to the front door barking in circles until Daniel commanded her to hush.

"Who could that be this late-of-in-hour?" Sandy mumbled her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"I don't know but stay there," he told us, as he wandered down the stairs. I watched as he peeked out the glass window before opening it up. He glanced around before bending down to pick up something from the ground. He closed the door, locking it, before looking up at us. "It's a letter addressed to all of us."

I rushed down the stairs to glance at the letter, the familiar handwriting caused me to grimace. "That chicken scratch of handwriting is my father's." He slowly opened it before pulling out the papers. An origami bird fell and I slowly reached down to pick it up, a creative way my father used to put in my school lunches to write messages to me.