Four Of A Kind

After finishing breakfast, I changed into jeans and a clean t-shirt. My phone buzzed with another text.

Harlow: ISAIAH WAKE UP!!!!

Harlow: are you coming to the festival prep today???

Harlow: i need my butler!!!! 🧛♀️🧛♂️

Shit. I’d forgotten about the Halloween festival. I’d promised to help Harlow with her vampire maid cafe.

Me: What time?

Harlow: setup at 11!!!!

Me: I’ll try to make it by 12.

Harlow: PROMISE???

Me: Promise.

Harlow: YAY!!!!!! 🥰🥰🥰

Harlow: bringing your costume to you!!!!!

Me: Wait what

Harlow: too late already in the car!!!! see you at 12!!!!!!

Great. So Diana was coming at 10, and Harlow would be here at 12 with a vampire butler costume.

My Saturday was getting complicated.

I heard a knock at 9:58. Diana was punctual, at least.

When I opened the door, she stood there with coffee and a bakery box.

“I brought breakfast,” she said.

“We already ate.”

Her smile faltered. “Oh. Well, these are from that French place you liked as a kid. The one on 5th.”

Impressive. She remembered.

“Come in.” I stepped aside. “Iris is getting ready.”

Diana walked into our apartment like she was entering a museum—careful, curious, trying not to touch anything. She wore jeans and a simple blouse, her hair pulled back. She looked younger than thirty-six.

“The place looks good,” she said.

“It’s the same as it was two years ago.”

She flinched. “Right.”

Iris emerged from her bedroom in jeans and a T-shirt with some anime character on it. Her hair was wet from the shower.

“Hi, Mom.”

Diana’s face lit up. “Iris! Look at you. You’re so big!”

“I grew three inches since you left.”

Diana’s smile dimmed slightly. “I brought pastries. From that place Isaiah used to like.”

“Le Petit,” I said. “I remember.”

We sat awkwardly at the kitchen counter. Diana opened the box to reveal chocolate croissants and fruit tarts.

“So,” Diana said. “How’s school going, Iris?”

“Fine. I’m in the art club. And I help at the library.”

“That’s wonderful! Are you still drawing manga?”

Iris looked surprised. “You remember that?”

“Of course I do. You were always so talented.”

Iris glanced at me, then back to Diana. “Yeah, I still draw. I’m working on a series about a girl with monster-fighting powers.”

“I’d love to see it sometime.”

The conversation continued like that—stilted but not hostile. Diana asked about friends, teachers, hobbies. Iris answered cautiously.

I watched them. Listened. Said nothing.

Diana had missed two years of Iris’s life. She’d missed first period, first crush, first heartbreak. She’d missed Iris learning to cook eggs because I worked late. She’d missed the time Iris got lost on the subway and called me in tears.

But she was trying now. That counted for something, even if it wasn’t enough.

“Isaiah said you’re living in California?” Iris asked.

Diana nodded. “Yes. Near San Diego.”

“With some guy named Jack,” I added.

Diana shot me a look. “Yes, with Jack. He’s a software engineer. He has his own company.”

“Is it serious?” Iris asked.

“I think so. He’s a good man.”

“That’s what you said about the last three,” I muttered.

Diana ignored me. “He has a beautiful house near the beach. Three bedrooms. A yard. It’s peaceful there.”

I could see where this was going.

“That sounds nice,” Iris said.

“It is. And there’s a great art program at the high school. One of the best in the state.”

Iris tensed. “Are you still trying to get us to move there?”

Diana paused. “I want you both to consider it. A fresh start could be good for all of us.”

“I already have a fresh start,” Iris said. “Isaiah got me an application for Hartwell Academy. I’m going to apply for the scholarship program next year.”

Diana’s eyebrows rose. “Hartwell? The private school?”

“Yes.” I couldn’t keep the pride from my voice. “Iris has the grades for it.”

“That’s… impressive. But California has excellent schools too.”

“I want to go to Hartwell,” Iris said firmly. “It’s where Isaiah goes. And I have friends applying there too.”

Diana looked surprised. “What friends?”

“The Valentine sisters,” Iris said. “Well, one of them. Harlow. She’s helping me prepare for the interview.”

Diana’s gaze snapped to me. “Those girls from last night? The ones who kept texting you?”

I nodded.

“How do you know them?”

“I work for their family,” I said. “I tutor one of them in math.”

“And they just happened to be at our apartment last night?”

“They were worried about Isaiah,” Iris said. “Because he missed dinner with them.”

Diana looked between us. “And you’re friends with them? All of them?”

The way she emphasized “friends” made it clear she suspected more.

“They’re my employers,” I said.

“They seemed very… attached to you.”

“They’re nice people.”

Diana didn’t look convinced. “And one of them is helping Iris with Hartwell?”

“Harlow,” Iris said. “She’s showing me how to dress for the interview and stuff.”

“That’s…” Diana seemed at a loss. “That’s very nice of her.”

“She thinks I can get in.”

“I’m sure you can,” Diana said quickly. “You’re brilliant, sweetheart. But California—”

“I’m not moving to California,” Iris interrupted. “I have a life here. Plans. Friends.”

“But we could be a family again.”

“We already are a family,” Iris said. “Me and Isaiah. That’s our family.”

Diana’s expression crumpled. “I’m your mother, Iris.”

“Biology doesn’t make you a parent,” I said. “Being there does.”

“I’m trying to be there now.”

“Two years too late,” I said.

“Isaiah,” Iris warned.

I fell silent.

Diana looked down at her hands. “I know I made mistakes. Terrible ones. I know I hurt you both. But I want to make it right.”

“By taking us to California to live with some guy we’ve never met?” I asked.

“By giving you a better life.”

“Our life is fine,” Iris said. “We have an apartment and food and Isaiah has scholarships and I have art club and—”

“You deserve more than ’fine,’” Diana interrupted. “You deserve a yard and a dog and a real house. And Isaiah deserves to be a normal teenager instead of working three jobs and raising his sister.”