The baby was whimpering in the backseat, setting Bette’s already frayed nerves on edge. She looked in the rear-view mirror and tried not to let panic creep into her voice as she spoke to her daughter.

"It’s okay, baby, it’s okay. Everything’s gonna be just fine. Yeah… Angelica and Mama B, we’re just gonna go for a little adventure until we figure out what to do next. Okay? It’s okay, sweetie." Bette looked again in the rear-view mirror at her daughter, then blew out a shaky breath and bit her lower lip. "It’s okay, sweetie." She looked at the black road stretching ahead of her, the sedan’s headlights reflecting off the snow flanking either side. "It’s gonna be fine…  it’s gonna be fine; it’s gonna be fine."

The repeated words did nothing to calm her jangled thoughts.  As she drove, she kept hearing the echoes of that last, disastrous conversation with Tina before the ceremony. Again, the idea of a family, one including Tina and Angelica and that man had been flung in her face, but this time by Tina herself. And not for the first time, she’d felt cornered, without options. After a brief hug and a distracted phrase of comfort for Carmen, she’d rushed up to Tina’s room, dismissed the baby-sitter and carried the baby across the hall to her own room, where she grabbed a bag with Angelica’s things. Angelica had settled quickly after being put in the car seat. Bette went about packing up her suitcase as the baby cooed, normal care abandoned in haste. She felt that any minute, surely any second, Tina and Henry would be back. A last tour of the room confirmed that she’d gotten everything. Bette wheeled the suitcase down the hall and took the elevator to the lobby, awkwardly holding Angelica in the car seat away from her body so as not to bump it against her legs. With the help of a bellhop, she and the baby were in her rental car in less than 5 minutes. She couldn’t shake the notion now, though, that someone had seen them.

What are you doing?

Bette noticed a road sign. Three more miles before the exit she wanted. She bit her lip again and drove on. Angelica was now quiet in her car seat. Bette’s eyes were drawn upward to the rear view mirror. The baby was asleep.