"Why can't we live in New York?" asked Olive, sitting on the edge of the bed, as her father helped her put on her boots. Her eyes were drooping with sleep, it was 5 a.m. and they were about to leave for the airport.

"Because we have our whole life in Seattle, honey. Our jobs, your kinder, your friends... our house in the woods..." said Derek, lifting her and setting her on the floor.

"Did you live in New York before I was born?" she asked, yawning.

"Yes... we lived here for many years. In Manhattan. In a brownstone house, with stairs at the entrance, a big sturdy door, and tall windows to the ceiling..."

"That was our first house... we moved there right after we got married," Addison added, coming closer, already ready to leave.

"Really?" Olive asked, wide-eyed again.

"Yes. I still remember carrying your mom in her white dress up those stairs. My back hurt for a week after that."

"Derek!"

"But the Honeymoon in Paris made me forget any kind of pain," he said with a knowing glance.

Addison shook her head, smiling.

"We had eleven amazing years there..."

"Can we visit that house someday?"

"I don't know, honey. Other people live there now. We sold it when you were a baby," Addison said.

"My cousins told me they used to sleep over in that house when they were my age," Olive said.

"It's true. We had two guest rooms for the nieces and nephews, with several beds and bunk beds. They used to take turns to come. I remember once your cousin Anne had a fight with Aunt Nancy and ended up living with us for a whole week," Derek laughed, remembering that rebellious period of his older niece.

"Why did you leave the house?" Olive asked.

Addison looked at Derek with a bit of fear. Perhaps she was the one who had to answer that completely innocent question from her daughter, but he took the lead.

"Because we got bored. We wanted a new, more exciting life. In that house, we didn't have swings or trees, or be close to the lake... isn't that boring?"

Olive shrugged, unsure of what to say.

"Seattle offered us all these wonderful things and it didn't make sense for us to stay in New York. We weren't happy there anymore. That's why we moved and had you, who turned our lives upside down."

"Hey!" she laughed.

"In a good way, honey. You taught us a new way of loving, a new way of looking at life and family. New York became obsolete with so much magic in Seattle. Our two treasures are from Seattle."

Addison smiled sweetly at him, grateful for the words he said knowing that it wasn't easy at all to talk about their chaotic past in New York.

Olive seemed to be satisfied with the explanation, it was very early and she was very sleepy. Derek carried her in his arms, they grabbed their suitcases and headed to the airport.

~•~

The flight departed from New York at 7:30 am. Olive eagerly asked to sit by the window to look at the sky and the clouds, which she loved to see every time they traveled. But after fifteen minutes in the air, she fell sound asleep.

Her sister, on the other hand, didn't want to sleep at all. From the moment the plane started its engines, the little girl expressed her discomfort and unease with persistent cries that echoed throughout the aircraft, disturbing the other passengers.

"How are you?" Derek asked, looking at Addison, noticing she looked somewhat pale. The girl was screaming in her mother's ear.

"A little queasy..."

"From the motion? Do you want me to hold Arley?"

"No, she'll calm down. She must be sleepy... it's just that... why did Bizzy call Olive? I haven't been able to stop thinking about it..."

"To wish her a happy birthday."

"I know, but... how did she know we were in New York? Does she have hidden microphones in our house to listen to our conversations?"

"WAAAAAAHH!" the baby screamed.

"Perhaps Olive mentioned it to her. She sometimes talks to her."

"Olive talks to Bizzy?!"

"Sometimes Bizzy calls, and she answers the phone. Something you never do..."

"Because I don't want to talk to her. And I don't want her to talk to my daughter. Olive is too sweet and innocent to fall into that witch's hands."

"Addie... you're exaggerating. Bizzy has always been a good grandmother. She loves the girls."

"WAAAAAAAAAH!"

"If by love you mean sending ridiculously expensive and superficial gifts once a year... Shhh, shhh... Arley, calm down, baby."

"Perhaps that's her way of showing affection... remember, mothers are not the same when they become grandmothers..."

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"Bizzy would prefer to die before Olive calls her grandmother. And you think she loves her? I feel nauseous."

"You always get nauseous when you talk about your parents."

"And you still think it's not that bad? Hold the baby, I'll go to the bathroom," she said as she handed Arleth over.

Derek shifted his legs to let Addison out and took the baby in his arms, who wouldn't stop crying.

~•~

Meanwhile, in Seattle, Amelia found herself in a somewhat desperate situation. The previous night, she had brought Ryan and some friends to her house for a night of partying, and the result had been disastrous. They drank excessively and did drugs, leaving a mess that seemed impossible to clean up before Addison and Derek arrived in a few hours.

With a heavy burden of stress and fatigue, Amelia quickly put on her underwear while trying to think of a solution.

"You have to leave, Ryan. I can't have my brother and sister-in-law find this mess when they arrive. They'll kill me if they find out what happened here!" she exclaimed, trying to control her trembling voice. She still felt dizzy.

"Mmm... just a little while longer. The sun hasn't come out yet," he murmured.

"Move your damn ass right now. I mean it, Ryan. I'll be dead if this place isn't spotless by 9 a.m."

Ryan understood the urgency of the situation and decided to help Amelia clean up. They began to pick up empty bottles, dirty dishes, food leftovers, drug wrappers, and other traces of the party. The house was in complete chaos, as if a tornado had passed through and swept everything away.

Amelia knew they had to hurry if they wanted any chance of leaving everything clean before Addison and Derek arrived.

As they progressed through the cleaning, the tension increased. She felt deeply ashamed and guilty for allowing all of this to happen in her own home. In her nieces' home. She couldn't bear to see the disappointment on Derek's face if he arrived and found the mess. So they hurried.

Amelia couldn't help but constantly look at the clock, not only to monitor the cleaning time, but also to remember that her brother and sister-in-law were getting closer, and she had offered to pick them up from the airport.

With each passing minute, the anxiety grew and grew inside her.

~•~

What was promised to be a peaceful and tranquil flight quickly turned into a nightmare due to the constant crying of the baby.

Addison, visibly exhausted from the accumulated stress of the previous days, was desperately trying to calm her daughter, but her efforts seemed futile. Arleth rejected her breast, the pacifier, and any toy offered to her.

She was probably suffering from colic. Or maybe her ears were clogged due to the altitude? Or perhaps her teeth were starting to come out? Or she simply hated flying.

Derek, embarrassed and frustrated by the situation, turned to his wife and whispered in a strained tone.

"Addison, the passengers want to kill us. She's been crying for two hours straight," as the words came out of his mouth, his face reflected both anguish and helplessness.

"And what the hell do you want me to do, Derek? Why are you blaming me as if I'm the one responsible for everything?"

"Why don't you take a walk with her so she can get distracted?"

"Where do you want me to walk to? It's a very confined space. Do you want me to annoy both the people in front and the ones in the back?"

The noise of the baby's crying mixed with the sighs and murmurs of disgust from the passengers, whose mood worsened with every passing minute.

All the reproachful looks were directed at them, trapped in a desperate situation. The only one unaware of what was happening was Olive, sleeping peacefully covered with a blanket.

Addison, overwhelmed by the situation, was apologizing softly as she gently rocked the baby in her arms and sang sweet lullabies. However, nothing seemed to ease the little girl's crying, increasing their desperation and that of those around them.

"Why don't you take her to the bathroom?" Derek murmured under his breath.

"Do you think she'll stop crying in the bathroom?"

"Maybe she needs a diaper change, I don't know. Go check."

"I already did, she's clean. I don't know what's wrong with her!"

"WAAAAAAAHHH!"

"Why don't you try breastfeeding her again?"

"Because she doesn't want to! She's not hungry!"

"We still have three and a half hours of flight. We can't have a baby crying for the next three hours."

"At some point, she will fall asleep, Derek. Why don't you be quiet? You're irritating me more than I already am. If it bothers you so much, do something about it."

"Give her to me."

Addison handed him the baby and he took her in his arms. He unbuckled his seatbelt and stood up to walk with her down the aisle of the plane.

He walked with her in his arms for half an hour or more. Something that turned out to be completely useless, because Arleth not only didn't calm down but intensified her crying. And if they were disliked by the passengers before, they were now hated.

Probably that airline would prohibit them from traveling with her again after this day.

Resigned, seeing that walking with Arleth didn't work at all, he returned to his seat and gave her back to her mother.

"She must be hungry, did she eat before we left?" he asked in a weak voice. Addison's face scared him.

"I already told you she didn't. She doesn't want to eat, she hates me. I put her on my nipple and she moves away. It's like she doesn't like the taste anymore..."

"I read somewhere that mothers transfer energies to babies through breastfeeding, maybe so much negativity coming out of you is overwhelming her..."

"What did you say?"

"Nothing..."

"WAAAAAAAAH!"

"Are you implying that I am the problem? That my nipples are the problem?"

"No, Addie. I didn't say that..."

"First Olive's alcohol poisoning, then the criticisms from your family, especially your mother. Then Bizzy's call, now Arleth. Am I going to have a moment of peace on this journey that was supposed to be a distraction?"

"Mom didn't criticize you. Nobody criticized you."

"Of course, she did, Derek, stop defending her. She told me in front of you that I am a bad mother."

"No, she didn't."

"WAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

"She called me an alcoholic, selfish, irresponsible, and neglectful. But it's contradictory for her to say that I'm neglectful when at the same time she told me that I spoil my daughters. That I give them too much attention. That Olive is spoiled and that I'm spoiling Arleth with breastfeeding. It's crazy because I thought women had a pair of tits to breastfeed, but it seems they are only for decoration," she laughed ironically.

"She made a suggestion that you don't have to be so... attached to exclusive breastfeeding. That's it."

"WAAAAAAAAAAAHH!"

"She said that I look like a milking cow."

"No, she said the opposite. That you're not and that's why n-..."

"And it seems that her shitty comment has influenced me because now I can't breastfeed Arleth because she rejects me. Because clearly, I am the problem in everything."

"Stop repeating that..."

"She didn't say anything to Kathleen about her daughters, she said they were girls and it was just an innocent prank. At no point did she think it was wrong for the two girls to have persuaded, to have taken advantage of the innocence of our six-year-old daughter to do such a crazy thing. With ten years, did Stephanie really not know what alcohol was? Didn't she realize that her cousin was getting drunk? Didn't they try to stop her as they saw her getting worse?"

"Add…"

"No one is going to talk about how these two had been planning this raid on their grandmother's closet for months? They had maps and everything drawn from the house. It wasn't a spur-of-the-moment idea. But my daughter, the youngest of all and the one who doesn't even live in this city is always the spoiled troublemaker."

"WAAAAAAAAAAH"

"And obviously, it's my fault for not controlling her, not your mother's fault for having dozens of alcohol bottles within reach of her fifty-five grandchildren. If I have a glass of wine once in a while, I'm a raging alcoholic, but if she has a collection of liquors from the dinosaur era, that's fine. It's normal and traditional. And you seem to agree with that, because you never, ever defend me in front of her or your sisters. You let her make shitty comments and question my ability as a mother."

"Addison, calm down. People are listening. Don't make a scene here. We'll discuss family issues at home."

"WAAAAAAAAAH"

"At this point, does it matter what people hear? We've been enduring more than four hours of non-stop crying from the baby!"

"Lower your voice. You're not helping the baby calm down."

"I'm always the problem..." she muttered.

"You're not the problem, but if Arleth is hungry and doesn't want your milk..."

"Why don't you ask a flight attendant for some hot water and prepare a bottle if you think she's hungry and the problem of her not eating is me?"

Derek nodded, took Arleth's things, and went to find a flight attendant. After a few minutes, he returned with the bottle ready and gave it to Addison.

She put it in the baby's mouth and she started drinking the milk, calming down for the first time that day.

After almost five hours of continuous crying, relief was felt on the plane when the baby finally fell asleep in her mother's arms after eating, and a collective sigh of calm took over the cabin.

"Dear passengers, this is your captain speaking from the cockpit. It is my pleasure to inform you that we are nearing the landing in the city of Seattle. The weather conditions are a bit adverse. We are landing in the middle of a rainy morning, which could slightly affect our landing experience and visibility around the airport. Please remain seated and keep your seat belts fastened until we reach our final position on the runway. I urge you to remain calm and be aware that inclement weather may delay the disembarkation process. Our ground staff is doing everything possible to expedite the procedure and ensure that all our passengers arrive at their intended destinations on time. Thank you for your attention and for choosing to fly with our airline."

"Did we arrive already?" Olive asked, waking up confused by the announcement, "The flight felt really short."

Addison and Derek simply looked at each other, not knowing what to say.

~•~

Surprisingly, Amelia arrived at the airport on time. After hurriedly straightening up cleaning the house and getting rid of all evidence of the party she had, she went to pick up her family.

She put on a good amount of makeup and some dark sunglasses to hide her dark circles and not raise suspicions. Although maybe that made her even more suspicious?

"Aunty Amy!" Olive shouted excitedly as soon as she saw her.

"Hey, Ols!" she greeted her with a tight hug. "How are you feeling?"

"Super good."

"Yeah? Was it really bad being in the hospital?"

"Eh, not too bad. The worst part was the soup they made me eat."

Amelia laughed and shook her head. She turned her gaze to Addison and Derek, who didn't look as happy as their daughter.

"Hey, hi. How was the flight? A lot of turbulence?"

"I became what I always hated: a mother in economy class with a baby crying the whole flight."

"Oof... was it that bad?"

"Worse than you can imagine."

"With that little angel face of hers, she got the whole plane hating her," Derek said, glancing at his wristwatch. "Addie, I'll go straight to the hospital. Can you take my suitcase with you?"

"Yeah, don't worry, my love. I always have to take care of your crap while you save the world."

Amelia tried not to laugh at that. They were both in a really bad mood.

"Thanks, my love. See you later," he gave her a little kiss on the cheek even though she tried to dodge it. "Goodbye Ols, Amelia..."

"Bye, Daddy!"

"Behave, okay? You're already six years old and very grown up. Listen to Mom."

"Okay."

"Bye, I love you."

Derek gave a little kiss on the forehead to his two daughters and went to take a taxi to the hospital.

"Cute sunglasses, great for protecting yourself from the killer rays on a rainy day, right?" Addison said sarcastically. She was waiting for them to be alone to say it.

"I have huge dark circles, I barely slept last night because of surgery..."

"Hmm, I can imagine. It must have been such a complex surgery."

"Addie, don't tell Derek..."

"Is the house in good condition?"

"Yes, I left everything in order."

"Okay then. I don't need to know anything else."

"Thank you," she whispered.

"You're welcome..."

~•~

"I brought cake for you, Aunt Amy," Olive said as soon as they arrived home.

"Oh, really? I can't wait to try it!"

"Wait, you brought cake, Olive? From where?" Addison asked as she put Arleth in her car seat. Luckily, she hadn't woken up after the commotion on the plane.

"In my backpack... look!" Olive said, pulling out a squished, melted, and dusty piece of cake.

"Ugh, Olive, that smells terrible. Throw it away right now and put your backpack in the washing machine," her mother said, covering her mouth.

"Why? It still looks good," Olive said, running her finger through the cake's icing and putting it in her mouth without any hesitation.

This simple act, typical of Olive and her love for chocolate in all its forms, caused Addison to gag and rush to the nearest bathroom, leaving the girl and Amelia surprised.

~•~

"Addie, are you okay?" Amelia asked from the other side of the door.

"Oh, Amy... yes. I'll be out in a minute."

"Do you want me to bring you a glass of water, or something?"

"No, it's okay. I'm fine."

Amelia wasn't entirely convinced. She stayed at the door waiting for Addison to come out.

"I'm fine, Amy. You don't need to worry."

"Was Olive's cake really that bad, or is something else wrong with you?"

"That cake is from three days ago. It lost its freshness, the icing was spoiled, and it was damp and full of dirt from the backpack... there was a whole living ecosystem in there, and my daughter put it in her mouth. I was already feeling queasy from the awful flight we had, and seeing that just made it worse."

"Hey, it's me, we're sisters... you know you can talk to me. There's no need to hide it."

"What?"

"I know it's advisable to wait until three months, but between us, we can talk about it earlier. I don't know what Derek might have told you, probably something against me, not that I'm surprised by his behavior at this point, but..."

"What are you saying, Amelia?"

"You're pregnant, Addison."