It wasn't true. Wherever the kids were, it couldn't be here, right? Foster care--surely even Landel wouldn't be cruel enough to take the angelitos from right off the train and dump them into foster care here, just to make things worse for her. Surely.

Then she remembered the virgin-eating birds.

"Oh," Meche repeated, feeling like she'd just been slugged. "Guess I don't exactly have visitation rights, do I?" She shook her head; she was reeling a little now. Getting her off-balance was probably exactly what he wanted, she reminded herself. But to put those little children in foster care, scared and alone....there were a lot of good foster parents out there, but the system also had a lot of problems. Meche doubted those had gone away in the last ten years.

"I'd never hurt them," she said. The earnestness in her own voice surprised her, and she caught herself raking her left hand anxiously through her hair. "Maybe that's hard for you to believe after what I've done, but those angelitos...they really mean the world to me. Do you think there's any chance--if I work hard in here, if I can get better...?" She wasn't sure whether María or Meche was asking the question, and at the moment, the difference didn't seem to matter all that much.