Redhawk Caldera beti

really sorry this took so long! I meant to prioritize it but then time got away. Feel free to forward date this or adjust it if you need to

Oh. Any cheerfulness she felt was immediately doused with the instant recollection of who this man was. Ani’s disappearance still worried Maia, and she still missed her adopted daughter terribly, but it had been so long that she’d forgotten that Ani had family out there who would be checking in. She should have sent word.

I’m really sorry. She left a few seasons ago. I don’t know where she is now. The lie came a little too easily. None of it actually was a lie, but there were things she could say that she intentionally left out. It was a kindness, right? They couldn’t change the fact that she was gone, and Maia couldn’t bring herself to make him worry the same way she had to. You’re just being selfish. You don’t want him to see what an awful mother you really are. Maia let her gaze fall.

I should have sent word. Any hope she might have held that Ani had returned to her birth parents was shattered. It didn’t matter that Maia hadn’t known where to find him. She should have at least tried.