Redtail Rise other loves, other vices

Home? Easy tested the word with a furrow of her brow, but she found there was no place or one or thing that she could pin it to. I have no home, she thought, mouthing the words to herself. She remembered what her father would say - "Home is a power you carry in your heart." The woman did not know she'd spoken aloud until she felt her tongue shape the last word. The look on her face suggested she did not quite believe it.

"I can't be the girl that you've missed," she said after a moment, still faintly embarrassed by how histronic her words tasted. What she meant was, I am not ready to face the ones I've let down, but she was still young, and that she'd changed too dramatically was an easier pill to swallow than that she was ashamed and afraid. And she had changed. Truly. But she still longed to see her mothers, and to meet her new siblings, and to fold herself into Aditya's loving presence. Only one of those options was readily available to her. "But... will you stay with me? For a while?"