Alex sneezed.

She rubbed her nose, easing the pain. It came out of nowhere. She didn’t even feel it build up. She sniffed. The pain would take a while to fade.

Light wind flowed through the night air near her window. She gazed from her windowsill with Maylin in her arms. She leaned against the frame, legs propped up on the small bench. Her gray eyes took in the scenery given by the sky. The moon was absent but the stars covered the darkness, always guiding travellers.

Maylin purred from under her touch.

She chuckled and lifted up the ball of fur.

Their noses touched briefly.

“Well, at least, someone is happy” Alex chuckled. She placed the cat back on her lap and tickled its chin. She peeked out the window again, “I wonder how Jae and Logan are doing…”

As if sensing her troubles, Maylin shuffled over her lap until it could rub its head against her stomach. Alex nuzzled behind its ear. A deep purr rumbled from the cat’s chest.

“You think it would be okay, Maylin?” She mused, “It makes me nervous if it became better or worse. I can’t even look at my phone. I’m just glad something good came out of Skye’s actions from last week. The truth can now set the brothers free.”

“Alex? Are you still up?” A voice asked from the door.

It opened a second later and revealed her mother. She wore a long silk nightgown in the color of lavender. She also used its matching robe. She entered the room like it was the runaway.

“What’s troubling you?” Angie continued when her daughter didn’t say anything. She took up the spot at the other edge of the bench.

Alex bent her legs to give space, “I’m just wondering if it’s okay to meddle in someone else’s problems. I hadn’t done it before so I don’t know where to draw the line.”

“Well, why did you do it?”

“Because nothing would change if I didn’t.”

Years—YEARS had gone by. Although their relationship improved a bit, that incident still kept them apart. A wall that blocked them whenever they tried to be closer. It made her wonder if she had anything like that. Had she blocked someone before because of her past? That is…

… before she came to Woodlands?

Angie patted her daughter’s knee, “I’m sure if you did it with good intentions, they’ll forgive you. If it doesn’t end well, you’ll learn to do better next time.”

Alex exhaled sharply. Maybe she thought about it too much. She had given Logan the choice. Hopefully, he believed that he made the right one. She probably needed to check her phone. She did promise to do it more often.

If things went well, he most likely spammed her inbox already.

“Mother, why are you here?” She finally realized, furrowing her eyebrows. Her lights were off except for the desk lamp. Her mother wouldn’t have come if she thought Alex had gone to sleep.

“I forgot to tell you something until I passed by your door” Angie shrugged.

Alex smelled suspicion from a mile away. What could it possibly be for her mother to forget? More importantly, what could it be for her to be here right now? It was two hours away from midnight. It could have waited until tomorrow morning.

She narrowed her eyes, observing her mother’s face, “And what is that?”

Angie pursed her lips. She widened her eyes lightly and created an innocent expression.

“Your grandmother is coming?”

“What? When?” Alex exclaimed. Her back jolted upright, “Why?!”

Never had any family member visited Woodlands since she began school here. That included her parents until a week ago. They all agreed that they had a conspicuous presence for Alex’s false identity. With eyes on them everywhere, it would only drag unwanted attention that could possibly reveal her location—not to mention her shenanigans.

Her mother raised her hands in surrender, “She heard about the school festival and wanted to check it out.”

“And how did she hear about it?”

“...”

“Knew it,” Alex snorted.

Only the people in this town knew about that. Since her parents had limited the range at who could access any videos of her, it would be unlikely for her grandmother to see them—unless she had someone with better skills and reported it to her, which she probably did. Although, it wouldn’t be Jaime’s style to confront it head on.

She most likely lured Angie into admitting to it.

“You never know… she might convince your father to let you stay” her mother attempted to coax, “I’m sure you and your friends would love that.”

“If I remember right, grandma was one of the people who protested against it in the beginning.”

“That was years ago. Times had changed” Angie pointed out. She scooted closer, tucking her hair behind her ear, “We were all worried, of course. It would be the first time you’d be away from home. When we saw you during the weekend of her birthday?”

She shook her head, amazement shining in her eyes, “Wow…”

The soft gasped tugged Alex’s heart. Unlike her, the others probably noticed a change. She hadn’t thought there had been any until the flyers rained. The surrounding warmth had made her see it. At first, it was only the change of the surroundings.

Next, it was the change in herself.

“We’d never seen you more energetic” her mother chuckled. A gentle smile stretched across her lips, “Those moments opened our eyes. I had hoped for something similar since the start so I was already ecstatic. On the other hand…, your grandmother had been enlightened.”

A lot of their time had been spent on this topic. It filled their appointment at the spa to the brim! They even placed bets playfully on how long it would take for the kids to become couples. It made the discussion much more lively and fun.

“She realized the good things that Woodlands Academy gave you.”

The hand on the clock ticked inside Alex’s mind. She couldn’t find the answer to the puzzle her mother gave. The sound seemed like a timer for her to figure it out.

Unfortunately, she didn’t have the will to try.

“And what is that?”

She noticed that her hands had stopped moving. She could feel Maylin’s rhythmic breathing as it slept on her lap. It became the only sound in the room.

“Trusting in love” Angie winked.

Her daughter arched her eyebrows. The clock came into a stop. Her mind had become a blank slate. A few question marks popped up, fuelling her current state. The face that she wore expressed it accurately.

“I’m confused.”

Angie grabbed her hands and leaned closer. She maintained eye contact the entire time. A proud and knowing smile etched into her face, “Alex, love comes in many shapes and forms. It’s constant. It’s in the air we breathe. It’s in you too. We’ve seen you grow to become your own person and to love every bit yourself. It is its own existence.”

Her voice dropped to a soothing tone. It mimicked the whispers of the night air, “Even when you closed yourself from the world, love had always been there to watch over you. It led you here. It led you to your friends. It led you to yourself.”

“But don’t get me wrong,” she clarified, tightening her grip, “It’s not about being naive that everything would be fine. It is trusting that even if you didn’t find love, it doesn’t mean it’s not there. You might just be looking at the wrong place and…! In most cases, it would be the one to find you.”

Nothing convinced her more that sending Alex to Woodlands had been the right choice more than seeing the group of friends her daughter made. She heard and saw several accounts of everything they’ve done together and for each other. They had marched to this house as soon as they could.

They had defended and protected her even when they found out the truth.

They had accompanied her through roller coasters, adventures and misadventures.

A miracle like that didn’t come from Alex alone. Her daughter was a good person but it was love, by its own, that brought them together…

… and it was trust, by their making, that kept them that way.

“So you’re saying…” Alex thought out loud. The idea seemed to be a bit vague but she felt it form in the recesses of her mind, “That even though I didn’t find it in Skye, it doesn’t mean that it’s not real? Like it would have made its way to me eventually? That… even though I shut myself off, it didn’t mean that love wouldn’t be there to accompany me?”

Her mother tilted her head from side to side, “More or less.”

I’d say more but it might be too much for her right now, Angie thought to herself. It was what mattered at the moment. Alex would learn more as she grew in age and in experience. These lessons would come to her at the right moments.

“Oh, you’re both here” Lilly announced her arrival, still wearing her pantsuit from this morning.

She walked over to the mother-daughter duo and pulled off her hair tie. Her honey brown hair expanded like a cream puff. It cinched at the place her tie had been and then, it fell into soft waves that covered her upper back.

She sat on the edge of the bed. Feet and knees apart, her elbows rested on her thighs.

A sigh flowed out of her lips.

“Hey, Lilly…” Angie greeted her. She released Alex’s hands and angled her body towards her sister-in-law, “How was court?”

“Tedious” Lilly snorted, “I have heard a lot of bullshit in my life. This whole case just raised the bar on ”

“We lost?”

“No,” she denied at once, “Skye just won’t be spending time in jail. The Conary offered to have her on house arrest instead. She will basically have her juvi sentence in a luxurious house.”

She explained more on the basic details, the ones she had mentioned first to James. The terms seemed simple and almost not like a punishment. The faces trained at her did not look happy.

They reflected her own emotions.

“So she’s grounded?” Alex scowled.

“Not necessarily” Lilly clarified, “She can’t enter every place that we listed out, possible ones that you visit. It could have just happened once but we included it in the list. It has every city of every country that could think of.”

“That’s over 50 places” Angie remarked, “Maybe even a hundred.”

Those numbers alarmed Alex, “Isn’t that a little excessive?”

“With a restraining order? Not really” her aunt shrugged. She pointed a finger to the floor and drew circles, “It helps prevent this from happening again.”

Then, she put two of the up, palm facing the other parties, “Second, she’ll have a tracker on her ankle at all times. It would alarm if she removes it so they’d know if she tried to escape. She’ll also have a range of distance that she could travel in. The same alarm would blare out if she goes over it.”

She had made sure to be precise at everything. If they wanted her to be in that summer house, Lilly wasn’t about to let anything slip by. That girl wouldn’t be allowed to escape.

“The range would slowly expand every year based on her behavior” she added, “Eventually, both could be gone but the list would remain effective. We could also update it if there’s a sudden visit somewhere. We just won’t be as specific as before and give a broad estimate.”

That had been her idea for a concrete solution. With that around, both sides could monitor where they are allowed and disallowed to travel in. They could also raise it immediately if Skye even violated an inch with the tip of her foot.

They could have her arrested on sight.

“Is that all?” Angie frowned. She didn’t agree at first but it slowly grew on her. It would have to do considering how the girl was still a minor. Hopefully, this would be a chance for a positive change in the future.

“Well, no…” Lilly groaned, “Alex had committed a crime by recording without Skye’s consent.”

Her niece turned on her defense mode, “But I—”

“I know. You gave her a chance to search for it but she failed. They still didn’t take it lightly and asked for compensation instead of a punishment.”

“A compensation?”

“Yes.”

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“Do you want to hear it?” Lilly asked her awaiting audience.

“Yes!!” Both mother and daughter urged, their senses fully engrossed to the trial’s results.

Lilly snorted, feeling slightly better. She could always count on these two to make her day better. She was glad that the door had been open. Or else, she would have gone to bed with a headache and a noisy mind.

“Well, the good news is Alex can continue attending school…”