Katherine

Maybe spaghetti was the wrong choice for dinner, but it was too late to turn back now. Twenty minutes until dinner and the house was still a mess. "Erland!" I called. "Can you get working down here please?"

A few seconds later I heard his footsteps pounding down the stairs. He materialized in the kitchen just as I stirred the meat sauce. "I'll clean, but only until Bella gets here."

I rolled my eyes. "You better hope you finish before then, or I don't care if you get embarrassed. Please tidy up the living room and dining room. I'll clean up some space for you teens to eat on the island once I finish cooking."

Erland turned and got to work. He knew better than to protest. At least, not to my face.

Car headlights pulled down the driveway and my heartbeat spiked. A feminine figure waved through the front door window a few moments later and I relaxed—Betsy. She embraced me when I opened the door, then held me at arm's length while she examined my expression.

"Are you sure about this, Kat? It's not too late to say you burned the spaghetti and that you need to reschedule."

I gave my friend a disapproving look. "I might burn it if you don't help me out in a minute."

Her features softened. "Fine, but if either one of them say something out of line, they better get ready for a tongue lashing."

"You're not going to do that." I handed her the ladle. "Can you put out equal portions for everyone while I finish the sauce?"

Betsy set to work, and I stirred the sauce as if it would somehow calm my nerves. Nick and Victoria. Back in my house. It'd been over seven years since the initial fiasco that tore my life apart. I didn't think anything could put me back together again but Jesus did. He restored all that I'd lost but, more than that, He gave me a hope for a future beyond this life. I knew Nick and Victoria went to church, but did they know that too? They seemed to keep to themselves, and no doubt Victoria was lonely—even if Matt's sister Abigail went to visit her every so often between her journalist travels.

I knew the aching loneliness when I first moved to Philadelphia after my breakup with Nick. Was well accustomed to the throb of pain every time a smile flashed in my memory but I only faced a white ceiling. With three kids, she would have an even harder time getting out.

A knock sounded at the door, jolting me out of my thoughts. Then it opened.

"Hello, hello!"

"Hey, Bella!" Erland came bounding from the living room, dropping a dust rag in the kitchen sink as he went. "Want to help me sweep the back porch?"

I spun around. Erland was pushing Bella toward the door to the porch. "I said you're going to eat inside."

Bella shrugged helplessly. "I'm not a fan of mosquitoes myself, Miss Katherine, but I'd prefer it to being within earshot of the dining room."

I swallowed a groan. Even she thought this was going to be a disaster. But I was going to hold firm. "That's fine." I waved them off.

Betsy met my gaze, her lips twitching. "They make quite a pair, don't you think?"

Too much. But I wasn't going to worry now. Once Erland's friend Grace came, she would be the third wheel they needed.

Betsy finished setting the table, and I had just gotten the sauce onto each bowl when the doorbell sounded.

I wiped my hands on the apron. "Go get it, please, Betsy."

"Sure thing." She went around to the foyer, and I could hear the tone of surprise in her voice as she greeted the guest. While she spoke, I caught a glimpse of two pairs of headlights, one pulling away and another coming in. The one coming down was a minivan—my heart lurched to my throat.

"Hey, Kat," said Betsy, coming into the dining room. "This is Grace."

I turned to see a young teen girl beside my friend, her brown hair pinned up in a tangle of braids that was hidden by a hot-pink sweatshirt hood. She pulled it back when she saw me, but her expression didn't shift from a curious, serious draw of her frown.

"Hi." I held out a hand. She jolted, as if snapped out of a dream, and grasped my hand. "The kids are outside on the porch. I'll get the food out to you in a minute. If you get tired of mosquitoes, you can come inside to the island."

She nodded. I couldn't tell if she was pleased or bored. "Thank you."

And she was off, outside, and the doorbell rang for the last time. Betsy stepped forward but I stopped her, passing my apron. "I'll get it," I said, brushing back my hair from my eyes.

I could hear the giggling of children laughing before I even opened the door. Then, there I was, standing before Nick with his hands in his pockets. He seemed relatively at ease to have one toddler behind each leg, though his shoulders were hunched in apprehension.

"Hey, Katherine."

I smiled and stepped aside. "Hey, Nick. Come on in."

By the time he untangled two little boys from his legs and walked inside, Victoria was at the door with the third child fast asleep in her arms. She, like her two brothers, had the fiery red hair of her mother, but the boys had the strange amber eyes that only Nicolas possessed.

"Sorry for being late." Victoria laughed nervously, fixing her hair with one hand as she stepped into the foyer. "This is Margaret, Rory, and Derek. They won't be much bother. They can play in the back with me—"

"Erland and Bella will have no problem with them," I said. "They're out on the back porch if you want to bring them out to greet them."

Victoria looked relieved. "Thank you. My babysitter couldn't take care of them tonight."

"Maybe next time," I said, and that seemed to leech even more tension from both of them. "Anybody hungry?"

Nick raised a hand. "Starved."

I led them to the dining room table, where Betsy took the seat beside me and Nick across from her. That left the seat directly across from me for Victoria. To my surprise, she came back from the back porch laughing.

"Now I know why my babysitter wasn't available," she said. "She's having dinner here!"

"Grace is your babysitter?" I blinked. "Erland invited her since she was a new girl at school."

"Yeah." Victoria nodded, sipping from her water. "She just moved down from Ohio with her dad. He must've been in the car we passed coming down here." Her face twisted, as if tasting something weird. "She's a sweet girl, so I'm glad you're helping her adjust."

"It's Erland more than me," I countered. "He knows what it's like to not have friends when he first moved down here."

That seemed to be the exact wrong thing to say, because both Victoria and Nick stiffened at mention of the circumstances that first drew me to Alabama. I was starting to feel like this had been a bad idea.

"I wouldn't trade the way things are for anything," I said quickly. "Really, I know the part you both played in it, but I'm past it and I hope you are too."

Betsy choked on her water, but she waved me away when I tried to help her.

When I looked back across the table, Nick was twirling pasta with a fork and Victoria was looking directly at me. "I like to think God is helping me," she said quietly, "... there are many circumstances left to work out, but thank you, Katherine."

"For what?" I blinked back at her in surprise.

"You've treated me like a person when I didn't deserve it," she said. "You too, Betsy. I haven't forgotten what you both have done for me. I believe God has given me a second chance to rebuild my life and part of that hope is from what you have shown me."

Her voice wobbled as she spoke, to the point where she cracked on the last word. A lump formed in my throat and all I could do was reach across the table to her. Her sea-glass eyes swam with tears.

I couldn't help but glance at Nick, who had stopped twirling his fork but was frozen in place. An expression, somewhere between regret and torment twisted his features before it cleared into indifference. 

* * *

Erland

We were finally able to get the triplets to sit down and shovel forkfuls of pasta into their mouths with the promise of chocolate. "There's some of Mom's secret stash in the fridge," I whispered to Bella when we finally settled down on the cushioned wicker couch across from the kids.

Grace sat at the edge of the seat, hands twitching as if ready to save one of the triplets from some self-inflicted danger. Like tripping over their own feet.

"Relax." Bella placed a hand over Grace's arm. "We're all looking after them. It's not just on your shoulders."

I passed two bowls down to them. "You're a guest here," I added.

She nodded and seemed to lean back. Bella engaged her in some conversation about the teen program at Wayward, it Grace only nodded as if she was listening to a lecture from a boring teacher. Her mind was elsewhere.

Until Bella asked a question about her father.

Grace froze. "What?"

Bella shrugged. "Yesterday you were telling me about your apartment. Do you know where y'all are staying? My mom and I can drop you off on the way back home tonight."

Grace frowned. "I really don't need help—"

"So what made you and your dad decide to move down to Alabama in the middle of the semester?" Bella leaned forward, her elbows planted on her knees. The curious tilt of her smile couldn't hide what I knew so well was the signal that she was on a scent. She hadn't forgotten how we'd seen Grace last week at the library, and she wouldn't stop until she found out the truth.

Grace stiffened. Her expression hardened, as if closing off. "He's down here for work. A short-term transfer."

"And you came with him even though you'd be away from your siblings?"

Grace looked Bella up and down as if appraising her. "Yeah, but I could've stayed if I wanted to."

I nudged Bella slightly, a signal to backtrack a little. Grace, for all the maturity she presented in class, looked like the apprehensive middle-schooler she really was. She was probably feeling ganged up on. A feeling I knew well.

"It's okay, Grace." I passed her a Sprite, but she didn't open the can or take a sip. "If you ignore Bella's inquisition, we really just want to help you...." I chanced a look at Bella to see a warning in her dark eyes, to hold back, but I went on. "I remember seeing you at the library last week, and you didn't look okay. Are you telling us the real truth or are you scared of something?"

Grace's gaze had fixed on the triplets while I spoke, but she snapped to me at the last question. "I'm not scared..." she said, "but I haven't been honest with you."

She lapsed into silence, and we could hear Katherine's laughter from inside the house. They must've broken the ice by now. Grace's face twisted into something like remorse, then her expression cleared into determination.

She sighed again. "I'll tell you, as long as you promise to keep this a secret."

Bella nodded. When I hesitated, she elbowed me and I nodded too. "Fine."

She let out a third breath, and in the last wisp of air, said, "Katherine's my sister."

I froze. Did I hear her right? But one look from her, and how my stomach sank to my feet, confirmed I had.

Bella looked between the two of us, confused. "Erland, what is she talking about?"

I grit my teeth. "Half-sister." I said. "Katherine is my half sister from an affair my mother had. I never met Kat's dad and neither did she, but it appears that Grace was raised by him."

Bekla's eyes widened in shock. "So this whole family you're talking about—"

"They don't know who you are." Grace opened the Sprite now, but she still couldn't seem to bring herself to drink it. "Dad hasn't said anything. Mom doesn't care to know any more."

"Did all this come out during your parents' marriage?" One of the triplets came up to Bella then, but she barely entertained them.

Grace shook her head. "This was before. Katherine is my sister from before my father's marriage, before he'd even met Mom."

"Does he know about Kat?" I asked. "You said your family doesn't, but what about him? Why hasn't he reached out to Kat before? Doesn't he care?"

Grace chewed her lip. "That's complicated. He actually—"

A scream cut her off. One of the triplets (the girl) had banged her head against the corner of the table.

Immediately the adults swarmed the back porch, and our convrsation was put to an end.

Victoria snatched up her daughter, and Katherine provided a warm towel to pick up the blood streaming down the side of her face. "We need to go to the hospital," she said, as Nick rounded up the rest of the kids.

In the flurry, Bella pulled Grace aside, but I couldn't hear their conversation as Kat recruited me to help Victoria and Nick get the triplets in the car. By the time I came back to the house, Bella was on the phone in the kitchen and Katherine and Betsy were picking up the kitchen.

"Where's Grace?" I asked Bella.

She pulled the phone away from her face for a second. "Bathroom." Then back to the phone. "Mom, can we drive her home tonight? Her dad can't come get her right away." Silence. "Okay, perfect. We'll be out in a minute."

Bella grabbed her purse and sweater, then started for the foyer.

"Bella, do you actually believe her?" I looked at her. If she believed Grace, then it was more likely true than not. Bella had a nose better than a blood hound.

She frowned slightly, brow furrowed. "I don't know." Her phone buzzed. "Mom's here." She looked at the foyer, where Grace stood, then back at me. She clasped my hand. "Listen, Erland, I'll try to get to the bottom of this, but we have to be gentle too. She's just a kid. She may not know what she's talking about."

"Or she may know all too well." I shot a glance at Grace. She turned to the door quickly, as if she wasn't listening to our conversation.

Bella pressed her lips against my cheek, a sudden warm pressure that sent a wave of warmth down to my toes. "Trust me," she said, her breath warm against my ear, then kissed my cheek again before pulling back.

As she walked out of the house, Grace in tow, I realized two things. First, that I did trust Bella, enough to drop everything for whatever she asked. And second, that no matter what came of Grace's allegations, my life may not ever be the same.