Chapter 54

—Ellie—

I loved my family with all my heart. And they loved me. But the moment I held my children in my arms, I knew I could not stay with them forever, knew it with soul-crushing certainty.

My children whom I had named Samuel and Isabella were Tristan through and through. Dark eyes, thick black hair. For everyone in my family they’d always be Russo's, always the result of something horrid, born out of something shameful, something dark. But for me they were the most beautiful creation I could imagine. They were utter perfection. They would lift each other up, make each other stronger like Mateo and I had done when we were younger and still did. It would be us against the world. It couldn’t be any other way.

Mateo stayed with me in the hospital after the birth while Mom went home for a few hours of sleep after twenty hours at my side during labor. Mateo’s eyes were kind and loving as they looked down at me, but these ten