Lewis shook his head slowly. "She only hurt you because she wanted to protect me. She tried to stop us from meeting, tried to trade fates. But you were still reborn, and we still found each other. When I realized what she was doing, I told her the bond exchange had failed. She won’t come after you again." He reached out and gently messed up my hair. "Besides, everything is different now. The existence of our children changes things."

Something clicked into place. That silver-haired version of me had died alone, with nothing left to hold onto no children, no anchor. Everett and Everly had broken something I once believed was fixed. Maybe fate was never something handed down from above. Maybe it was something you had to grab and reshape yourself.

"Riley, I know I handled this badly. But I truly had no other choice. She’s my mother. I hate what she did to you, but I can’t treat her like an enemy. If you want to punish me for it, go ahead. I won’t argue."

I looked into his guilty eyes and let out a long breath. What could I even say? This had never truly been his fault. He had spent his whole life starving for love, and everything Eleanor had done came from the same place love for him. He had been standing between his mother and his mate, and either choice would have cost him something. So he had kept us both in the dark. I had suffered most for it, and I still couldn’t bring myself to blame him. He had offered me his life without hesitation. I wasn’t going to hold this over him forever.

Beside me, Everly made a soft string of sounds in her baby voice, babbling at nothing in particular. I had no idea what she was trying to say, but it was the most adorable thing I had ever heard.

I looked at my babies and felt every last bit of my frustration dissolve.

I raised my hand and thumped Lewis lightly on the chest. "You jerk. If you ever hide something like this from me again, I’ll "

He pulled me in by the waist and murmured against my ear. "You’ll what?"

"I’ll be mad for three whole hours."

He laughed, low and warm. "I wouldn’t dare." 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

After playing with the kids for a while, I wandered into the kitchen. Watching Eleanor move around the space quiet, efficient, focused I wondered how I hadn’t seen it sooner. Even when they weren’t smiling, the sisters had looked alike. But Amber had no dimples. Eleanor had always been cold and still, softening only when Lewis was near. Back then I had barely known Amber, and I had simply written her off as difficult and unpredictable. I had heard Eleanor used to be warm, even lively, before the years ground her down into something harder.

She sensed me before I spoke. Her head snapped around, a sharp reflex that had been trained into her over years the kind of awareness that didn’t fully switch off. When she saw it was me, she let her expression settle. "Good timing. These are Lewis’s favorite dishes. When I’m gone, you’ll need to know how to make them."

So mothers-in-law were the same everywhere. I wasn’t escaping this.

I kept my tone easy. "I wasn’t planning to learn them. If he wants them, can’t you just make them yourself? You’re not old. You could cook for him for decades."

She reached over and knocked me lightly on the head. "You wish. I won’t always be here." A shadow passed through her face, brief but real. "You two will have to walk the rest of the road yourselves."

There was a finality in those words that unsettled me. Before I could ask anything, she changed the subject. "Wash your hands. Come learn."

I let a beat pass, then said quietly, "Aunt Amber next month is my bonding ceremony with Lewis. You’ll come, won’t you?"

She made a soft sound. Not yes, not no. Just acknowledgment.

I let it be. If I could extend grace to the Sanders, I could extend it to her. Now that I was a mother, I understood her in a way I never could have before. If I knew my children’s future was set toward pain, I would tear the world apart to change it too.

Eleanor stayed with us for the next several days. She helped with the babies most of the time, patient and unhurried in a way I hadn’t expected. Other times I would find her in Jeffrey’s old room or sitting alone at the dining table, staring at nothing for long stretches, lost somewhere I couldn’t follow.

As the bonding ceremony drew closer, I started going to bed earlier, wanting to be steady and rested for the day. My health had improved after weeks of quiet recovery I would never fully return to what I had been, but I was alive, and that was more than I had once been promised.

Lewis never disturbed my sleep. Even with a nanny in the house, he insisted on handling the babies himself, setting their crib in the small suite adjoining our room so I wouldn’t be woken by every sound. But he was still up once or twice a night feeding them, changing them, keeping the world quiet so I could rest.

The twins were past five months now. The doctor had told us it was time to wean them off night feeds, and the past few nights had been rough, their cries filling the small suite while I stayed half-asleep on the other side of the wall. The soundproofing was good. I barely heard anything.

But tonight, I surfaced.

"Lewis," I murmured, still half in sleep. "I’m so thirsty."

No answer. I waited a few seconds and opened my eyes to an empty bed.

I pushed back the covers, crossed to the suite, and opened the door.

Lewis stood in the middle of the room holding one baby against his chest and the other strapped across his back in a carrier. Everett had both small fists twisted deep into Lewis’s hair. Everly had a fistful of his pajama buttons and was wailing like the world was ending.

"Shh. Be good, don’t cry. The doctor said no more milk at night. You’re okay, I’ve got you."

Everly blinked her big wet eyes, still sniffling, as if she was genuinely considering cooperating.

"That’s it, sweetheart "

"WAHHHH!"

She collapsed into even louder sobs.

I stood in the doorway watching him collar pulled sideways, broad shoulders half-exposed, hair a disaster and felt something quiet and enormous move through my chest.

The man who had once made entire organizations flinch was currently being defeated, completely and utterly, by a five-month-old.