Mag-log in**Mara's POV**The scorching sun had gone and it was past 5pm in the evening. Upstairs, the silence was almost strange.For hours, the halls had rung with the thunder of small feet, high-pitched laughter, and plastic dump trucks slamming into the baseboards. Liam and Adriel had burned through every bit of energy they had, turning Ethan into an obstacle course until their eyelids drooped over bowls of warm potato soup.The nanny had carried Liam up to bed while Ethan carried Adriel on his shoulders and tucked him under the star-patterned duvet. By the time I pulled the quilts up to their shoulders and smoothed the damp curls from their foreheads, neither boy stirred. Adriel lay on his stomach with his lips slightly parted. Liam had a small, possessive grip on his wooden train engine, his breathing slow and deep.I stood in the nursery doorway for several minutes with my hand flat against the painted frame.In this house, with the nightlights and the sound of their breathing, the outsi
**Vanessa's POV**I had slipped away while Damon was at the window of Bay Three, watching his daughter breathe. Nobody noticed. Eleanor was on the bench with her eyes closed, and the nurses were busy. I took the stairs down two levels, one hand on the rail, the cotton ball still taped to my elbow.I pushed through the heavy metal door at Sub-Level 2 and stumbled into a narrow corridor between the linen store and the electrical room. The air handlers hummed through the soles of my shoes and drowned out everything above.Down here, nobody was watching.My back hit the cinderblock wall, and my knees gave way.I slid down until I was curled on the cold floor with my knees against my chest. The cotton ball had soaked through, and my arm throbbed where they had taken my blood.Everything I had been holding in for hours finally cracked.I buried my face in my hands and sobbed, an ugly, ragged sound scraped from the back of my throat. Every plan I had built was slipping through my fingers, an
**Damon's POV**I carried her through the hospital doors myself.I don't remember the drive. I remember her weight, no heavier than a coat, and the smell of her hair, and someone shouting my name before a nurse took her out of my arms.Then there was only the corridor, the cold white light, and the glass.Through the window of Bay Three, four nurses in blue scrubs moved in a tight ring around a small gurney. Chloe lay in the middle of it, lost under a tangle of lines and monitor leads, her face the color of paper.The monitor shrieked."Charge to one hundred!"The doctor who had looked after her since she was born backed out through the swinging doors, pulling a bloodied glove off his hand. His mask hung loose around his neck, and his forehead was slick with sweat."Damon." His calm bedside manner was gone. "Her heart went into a dangerous rhythm, and now there's bleeding near it. A vessel has torn. She's losing blood faster than we can replace it."The floor tilted under me."Fix it,
**Damon's POV**The wipers slapped across the windshield, but my eyes were on the gray highway leading toward the state forensic lab downtown.I had left the house meaning to go to the sheriff and give my statement about the crash, minutes into the drive, I changed my mind.A statement could wait. But two sets of swabs sealed in an aluminum case were on their way to a lab, and after the silver drive in Vanessa's jewelry chest, after the crash thirty yards from Mara's gate, after five years of living inside a quiet lie, I didn't trust the couriers or the Blackwood lawyers. I wanted to be at that lab in person. I wanted to stand in the corridor outside the sequencing room and watch the seals get logged.So I had turned the car around. The court's custody papers lay on the passenger seat, stamped with Judge Holloway's expedited order. My knuckles were white on the wheel.Then the dashboard lit up.**[Incoming Call: Home]**I reached to cut it off. I had said everything I meant to say to
**Mara's POV**"Ahem."The throat-clearing came from behind me, loud and deliberate.I pulled back from Ethan so fast my heel caught on the edge of the runner. My heart gave a guilty jolt, as if I'd been caught doing something wrong in my own hallway. For a few seconds, tucked against his chest with the smell of cedar and rain shutting out everything else, I had forgotten about everything. Reality came back so fast staring me on the face. I turned and smoothed the front of my cardigan, willing the heat in my neck to go away.The nanny stood by the archway to the kitchen, holding a grocery tote in both hands. She had gone out earlier to run an errand, and she had missed the officers, the swabs, and the crash at the gate. An awkward, sheepish smile twitched at the corner of her mouth."I didn't mean to interrupt, Ms. Bennett," she said, ducking her head. "I just came in through the service door. What would you like for lunch? And for dinner?"I cleared my throat and made my voice bri
**Vanessa's POV**"Vanessa! Vanessa, where are you? Come down here this instant!"Eleanor's shrill voice echoed up the grand staircase like breaking glass.I stood frozen on the upper landing, gripping the brass railing until my knuckles burned. My knees shook under my trousers. Damon had walked out of the bedroom barely an hour ago, saying nothing more, and had locked himself in his study. Now *she* was downstairs.I looked over the balcony into the marble foyer. Eleanor stood in the center of it, her tweed coat still damp from the courthouse rain, her handbag clutched in gloved hands like a weapon. Her face was twisted in furious disgust.Bitterness rose in my throat.*Look at her.* This was the same woman who had hovered over me when I carried Chloe, ordering organic broths and bed rest, treating me like a sacred vessel because I carried the next Blackwood heir. Now she was shouting at the foot of my stairs like a fishwife."What is it, mother?" I called down, keeping my voice flat







