MasukAnd 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
Chapter 127 Athena The tears came then and I couldn't stop them. Everything from the past few days, the fear and the pain and the overwhelming love these people had for me, it all came pouring out. I turned to Orion first and wrapped my arms around him, burying my face in his shoulder. He held me
Chapter 124 Tristan The first thing I felt was Athena's hands on my chest, warm and steady and alive. The second thing was air filling my lungs without that horrible rattling sound that had been there before. I could breathe, really breathe. I opened my eyes and everything was blurry at first, j
The simple words hit me harder than any argument or explanation could have. He trusts me. Even after everything that's happened, even knowing what I'm capable of, he still trusts me completely. I nod and move toward him, wrapping my arms around him in a tight hug. His body tenses, but not from fear
"Everything sounds normal," he said. "Heart rate is back where it should be, breathing is clear. How's your appetite?" "Getting better," she lied. "Any dizziness? Nausea?" "A little, but not too bad." Dr. Graze scribbled notes in his chart. "I think you're recovering nicely. But I want you t







