Chapter 6
Lily studied the photograph.
“Who is holding me?”
Isabella’s voice softened.
“Your first mother.”
The child frowned.
“My first mother?”
I could see Isabella fighting tears.
“She loved you very much.”
“But you’re my mom.”
“I am.”
“Then who is she?”
Isabella took Lily’s hands.
“Her name was Elena. She gave birth to you. I became your mother because she asked me to protect you.”
Lily looked confused rather than frightened.
Children understood love differently from adults. They did not measure it by blood, inheritance, or duty. They measured it by who stayed when the room went dark.
“Did she go away?” Lily asked.
Isabella’s breath trembled.
“She died when you were very small.”
Lily lowered her eyes.
The sight of her sadness awakened something violent inside me.
Not toward Isabella.
Toward every person who had forced Elena to hide her child.
I picked up the photograph.
“Elena was my sister.”
Lily looked at me.
“Then you’re my uncle?”
The word landed in the center of my chest.
Uncle.
An hour ago, I had believed I had lost the only child who might ever call me family.
Now Elena’s daughter sat across from me.
Alive.
May you like
Brilliant.
Unafraid.
