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
That left just Derek and Kiara and it was painfully awkward as they both tried to leave at the same time without acknowledging each other. "Thank you for coming," Sarah said to both of them. "It meant a lot to have everyone here." "Thank you for hosting," Kiara said graciously, then surprised ever
"I was thinking about doing something for the women, as an appreciation." She said like she remembered something. "What did you have in mind?" I asked. "A dinner maybe?" Sarah suggested. "We could host something nice, invite them all over, show them how much we appreciate what they did." "I think
She started with my neck, her fingers gentle as she probed the bruising, then she moved to my ribs, having me lift my shirt so she could see the extensive bruising there. "You took quite a beating," she said quietly. "I know," I said. "But I kept my stomach protected, nothing hit me there directly
I looked back down at Lily. "The baby is okay," I told her. "The baby is safe." "Good," she said seriously. "I'm going to be a big cousin, I have to help protect the baby." My throat felt tight with emotion. "You're going to be a wonderful big cousin." She smiled at that and snuggled closer to me







