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"I don't think it's a good idea, Noah." Kadence Thomas stood at the kitchen window, looking out and watching as her two daughters played in the backyard.
They'd practically begged to go outside all morning, Violet claiming that it was, "too nice of a day not to." Sometimes, the woman wished her daughters weren't so smart for their ages. Only a year apart, that's where she figured she made her mistake. She wanted them at least five apart, but Noah insisted on them being so close.
He loved how close they were, too. Wherever Violet was, Nala was. Bonded at the hip, his girls were his entire world.
"They're too young to travel so far," she continues. "Nala's utterly afraid of anywhere that isn't this house, and Violet has a tendency to run off and think she's free to roam." Her hands grip the sink, knuckles burning white the longer she looks out the windowpane.
From behind, Noah wraps his arms tightly around his wife. He holds her close, lets his breath brush against the back of her neck. It always called her down, even when they were mere freshman in college. College is what brought them together, but everything in between now and then is what glued them.
"They would love Savannah, though. The warm air, the sandy beaches... What's so wrong about that?" The sandy beaches and warm air were a bribe, Kadence knew it. She'd been to Savannah once before with him, when she met her parents the summer after they first met. In fact, she met his entire family.
They were all there to welcome her with open arms. It's the summer they fell in love, the summer that set everything in stone.
She sighs. "There's nothing wrong with it, but there's something wrong with our daughter." In the backyard, Violet plays with her little sister as if she's the most fragile thing in the world, like she's afraid she'll break her with one wrong move.
You have to be gentle, Kadence would say. She's a lot more sensitive, Violet.
Violet never understood her mothers worries. And, if Kadence were being honest with herself, she never truly understood it, either. Having children came with the risk of passing things down, its why it took so much convincing from everyone around her. She was scared one of her babies would turn out... Bad. She didn't want that, didn't want them to suffer.
"There's nothing wrong with her-"
She shakes her head, "There is. She had an entire meltdown over the tag in her shirt, and she hates loud noises and can't stand the sound of rain when it hits her window," She says. "There's something wrong."
Noah knew there was something wrong, but he always tried to write it off as her being a kid. Kids don't like a lot of things, kids having growing brains that barely even understand what their purpose of being on earth is. They don't know anything.
