Chapter 29

[Valerie]

** Eight Years Ago **

The rain had finally stopped, but Mateo still held me as the sun came back up and dried off any trace that the rain came down today. I didn’t want to leave, I just wanted the comfort of my best friend’s warm embrace until I knew nothing else.

I had no idea that I wasn’t theirs. For fifteen years I walked around thinking that Agnes and Harold were my parents. I thought that Agnes had carried me in her womb, and Harold was the first to carry me in his arms when the doctor handed me to him as a newborn baby. I thought that when my parents saw my brown eyes for the first time, they saw love in them. I thought that when I was born, I forged a deeper connection between Harold and Agnes, and sealed their fate as mates and spouses. I thought, but I was wrong.

It all seemed to make sense now, the longer Mateo and I sat in silence and watched the sun consume the clouds. They never did look at me with love in their eyes. Not