The Return

Chapter Thirty

Friday April 28th 2021.

"There you are," Heaven said picking up her pace. She shuffled and shoved impatient mothers with their whining kids and absent-minded fathers entertaining last-minute work calls.

The return flight wasn't nearly as rough. Holly was on her phone the two hours it took the commercial airline to take off and land. It was the only time Holly had to finish Hell by Heaven and when she clicked play on the last episode, the one that featured Vaughn, it was shattering to know Heaven hadn't sent out the invite but spoke as if he were there, as if he were listening. She did her best to ignore the jab of grief and guilt that was playing ping-pong with her emotions.

She missed Iris. A part of her felt like she always would.

Everything was different from the first time she returned to Chicago. She chose to blame it on the jetlag.

It was late in the afternoon when Holly emerged from baggage claim and jogged eagerly from the terminal into her sister's arms.

She held Heaven till her arms fell asleep.

She heard a click and a flash of light exploded in her eyes.

Heaven pulled away.

Cody was looking down at the camera dangling from his neck.

Holly tugged heaven to chair in the corner by a bookstore. She needed to apologize. God Iris wasn't the only one Holly took for granted. Weren't twins supposed to be in sync? How did she feel nothing when her own sister needed a shoulder to cry on and she let her calls run to voicemail?

"I should have said this before. I should have called, Heaven, the moment Mom and I landed in Nigeria after the divorce... We could have talked about the trip and all the places we visited before Aunt Ruth got us settled in her apartment in Manhattan."

A flight was announced over the intercom.

"Holly, you don't have to do this,"

Holly shook her head.

A janitor pushed a cleaning trolley past where they were sitting.

"I do, because, I don't even know if you want to keep this baby or if you made an out of the blue trip to Albuquerque... But I want to be in its life and I can't do that if I know that I took you for granted all these years."

Heaven opened her mouth to say something then stopped herself.

"I finished Hell by Heaven, and listening to it, to the emotion you put... I feel sick that I pushed you to the point you had to tell other people your problems when I was one call away. Just tell me how to make it right?"

Heaven was silent.

"Say something, please."

"You listened to the whole thing?"

Holly nodded vigorously. She made sure to go back and check if there was anything she missed before getting off the plane.

"You've already made it right, Holly. You took an interest in me, my passion and I didn't have to ask you to." She would have done more... she would do more if that's what it took to get involved in her sister's life. "And, we didn't go to Albuquerque while you were gone, we're keeping the baby."

Holly blinked. "You're keeping the baby?" That was all Holly could rasp. A ripple of delight shot through her. She blinked back tears. She didn't know whether to attack her sister with another hug or scream at the top of her lungs. She was going to be an aunt. Auntie Holly. It had a nice ring to it. Strings of panic dangled into her mind as the fight between Georgia and Vaughn and their entire family darted behind her eyes like a motion picture. She grimaced. "And what about Mom and Vaughn? What are you going to tell them?" They weren't going to take it lightly. Georgia in particular. It was one thing to have a kid out of wedlock, in a semi-Nigerian home, it was another to have one as a teenager yet to get accepted into a decent college.

"The truth. I don't think they're going to like it, but they have to at least respect my decision if I'm respecting theirs."

There was a lot about Heaven Holly missed out on. A lot Holly was determined to learn. If Manhattan taught her anything it was never to take anyone for granted. Aside from Iris, Heaven was another person Holly selfishly ignored. And it wasn't going to take a day or a week to bridge the gap, but Holly was glad to be given a chance at all.

"I'm proud of you, Heaven." Holly forced through a sad smile. An arm outstretched.

Heaven took Holly's hand in hers and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

Cody walked up to where they were sitting by the electrical outlets. "Can we speed this up, you know Kyle hates waiting," Cody whined. He took her shoulder bag from her.

"Wait, Kyle's here?" She ran her hand through her mess of tangled curls, eyes wild. "Like right now?" She smoothed down her day-old travel sweats.

"And Rowan got Malcolm's address from her Dad's office." Cody said not sounding the least bit pleased by that bit of information. "Thanks to your meddling, my Mom's determined to blow that damn case wide open," Cody took her shoulder bag from her. "Look, it's not too late to stop digging. You know that, right?" He looked expectantly at her.

She shook her head. She wasn't going to stop digging. He was either in or out. But she was too invested.

They took the elevator down to the parking lot and Cody led them to Kyle's orange Honda Pilot. He already had the engine running and popped the trunk.

Sitting up front with a coy look on her face was Rowan.

Holly didn't pay her much attention. Not yet, not when it felt like there was a million miles between her and Kyle. A distance he created after the arrest.

She pressed a hand on the warm metal of the car door.

"Steinfeld," He said softly. She missed the sound of her name on his tongue. "I know I've been radio silent for the past few days..." Understatement of the decade. Although, shortly after landing in Manhattan, she didn't bother trying his line or texting. A classic case of the pot calling the kettle black. "How about I make it up to you?" Kyle said, an arm propped up on the steering wheel.

Three days, he was off the raider, well, her raider. How could he possibly make it up to her? "Can I walk you to Mayra's tomorrow?" Even if they didn't have school on Saturdays, she was eager to revive their tradition of walking to Mayra's park every evening. Not that she was going to make it obvious that she was over the moon at the idea. It didn't help that the butterflies in her stomach were rehearsing their choreographed dance.

Heaven pulled the back door open and climbed inside.

"I'd like that." Holly's smile was stiff and so was her nod.

She let herself into the back seat.

The first thing she noticed once she was settled was that it smelled like him. The second thing was that the car was squished once Cody piled in after her.

"Yes!" He said pumping his fist. He revived the car and eased out of his spot and spun the car around.

"Guess who eventually made it as a part of your little murder mystery club?" Rowan jabbed two fingers at herself. She got her nails done in a shade of light purple accentuated by the white crescent moon and flutters of stars.

"It's not a club," Holly rolled her eyes. 

"Why do you even want to help anyway?" Heaven leaned forward in her seat.

"Yeah, Daddy's girl needs a little excitement?" Cody raised an eyebrow.

"Ha-ha, you're not the only ones that have been looking into this case. And besides, it's about time your group gets a fresh pair of eyes. You all think Scarlett was a saint. Well, there's more to the dead girl than meets the eye."