Lia

It happened on a quiet morning when nothing else was happening. I woke up to a sunny day and a clear sky. The birds were singing. The twins were still asleep, tangled in blankets at the foot of my couch. For a moment, everything felt normal, peaceful, even. I remember thinking how rare that was.

For Solen to appear like this, on such a wonderful day, seemed almost fitting. Almost cruel.

He must’ve planned it. He had to have. Striking not in the middle of chaos, but in the calm, when our guard was down, when we were most vulnerable. When we might forget, just for a second, that...