로그인And then it was just us. Our family. I picked up Arianna while Tristan got Adrian, and we carried them upstairs to their nursery. The room had been redecorated twice as they'd grown—first to accommodate their crawling, then again when they started pulling up on furniture. Now it was a mix of cribs
Chapter 214 Athena I looked at Adrian in my arms, then at Arianna in Tristan's. They'd grown so much—both walking now (well, Arianna walked, Adrian preferred to crawl at high speed). Both babbling constantly in their own twin language that we couldn't quite decipher. Both showing more personality
Chapter 213 Athena The backyard was full of chaos—the beautiful, loud, messy kind of chaos that came from having a joint first birthday party for twins. I stood on the back porch, watching the scene unfold before me with a smile that felt permanently fixed on my face. Colorful balloons bobbed
Chapter 212 "Mama's sorry," I soothed, bouncing her gently. "But we need to figure this out before you touch any more plants, okay?" "Can I see?" Lily asked, pushing past the adults to get closer to the plant. "Wow, it's so pretty! And it smells good too." She was right. The plant was giving off
Chapter 211 Athena "The plant," I said, knowing I wasn't making sense but unable to form coherent thoughts. "The dying plant in the living room. She touched it. Tristan, she touched it and it came back to life." Silence. All three men just stared at me. "What?" Orion finally asked. "The plant
Chapter 210 Athena Six months. Six months since Adrian and Arianna had come home from the NICU, and I still sometimes woke up in the middle of the night to check that they were breathing. The monitors helped, their steady beeping had become the soundtrack of our lives, but the fear never comple
"Okay," I said softly. "Thank you for carrying the box." He relaxed slightly. "You're welcome." Thursday evening, we went shopping for the dinner on Saturday. Tristan pushed the cart while I picked out ingredients. "What do kids eat?" I asked, looking at Sarah's text that said they were bringing
Chapter 138 Athena Tristan opened the door and there they were. Orion with his arm around Sarah, their two kids bouncing excitedly on the porch. Liam was in Sarah's arms, while Lily, was tugging on Orion's hand. "Uncle Tristan!" Lily squealed, launching herself at him. He caught her easily, sw
Another message came through. "We know where you are." My heart stopped. "Sarah," I said. "I see it," she said, her face pale. She stood up and went to the window, peeking through the curtains carefully. "Do you see anything?" I asked. "No," she said. "Everything looks normal." But normal di
Dinner was loud and chaotic in the best way. Lily chattered nonstop about her preschool and her friends, while Liam made a mess with his food, getting more of it on himself than in his mouth. "Liam, please," Sarah said for what felt like the hundredth time, wiping his face with a napkin. He just g







