<b>Chapter </b><b>137 </b>
“Elliot… sweetheart. This is your mother. Your biological mother.”
The words felt like ss breaking in the quiet, sharp and irreversible. Elliot’s spoon hit the floor with a small tter, ignored. He stared, wide–eyed, chest rising and falling too fast. Macey pressed closer to his side, her little hand finding his sleeve, but even she seemed to understand this wasn’t her moment to speak.
“My… mother?” His voice cracked, the single word bnced between hope and fear.
Reina swallowed hard, stepping closer, slow like she might spook him. “Yes, baby. I…” Her breath caught, tears welling until her voice was just a rasp. “I’ve been looking for you. Since the day they took you, I never stopped. Not once.<b>” </b>
Elliot’s brow furrowed, lips trembling as if he wanted to believe and couldn’t. “But…
Envy’s my mum.<b>” </b>He darted a look at me, quick and desperate, like he needed me to anchor him. My chest squeezed tight.
“You’re right,” I said softly, steadying him with a hand over his. “I am. Nothing changes that.” Then I tilted my chin toward Reina. “But this is the woman who gave you life. The one who held you before Marcus stole you away.”
Reina’s face crumpled at the name, but she nodded, kneeling down to make herself smaller, less frightening. “Elliot… do you remember buttercups? Do you remember a song? Sleep, small star…”
He froze. His mouth worked soundlessly, then the words tumbled out, a whisper: “Boat on the barley, back to the bales… I’m here, I’m here.”
Her sob broke the air. She covered her mouth, then reached out trembling fingers but didn’t close the distance, waiting for him. “Yes. That’s it. That was ours.”
For a long heartbeat, Elliot didn’t move. His eyes darted between us, me, Reina, Macey, and then, slow as sunrise, he stepped forward.
“Are you really my mum?” he asked, voice so small it nearly broke me.
“Yes,” she whispered. “<b>If </b>you’ll have me.”
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His hand lifted, trembling, and brushed hers. Just fingertips at first, as if he feared she’d vanish like smoke. But when she didn’t, when her fingers curled instinctively around his, Elliot’s whole body shuddered. The dam broke. He lurched forward, burying himself in her, a sob tearing out of him so raw it split me open just hearing it.
“Mumma.” The word cracked. Shattered. He said it again, harder this time, like it had been waiting all this time, locked in his chest. “Mumma!”
Reina folded around him like she had never let go. Her arms shook but they held tight, her face pressed into his hair, her tears soaking into the crown of his head. Their cries tangled, one small, one older, the same rhythm of loss finding its echo.
I felt Macey’s little hand slip into mine. I looked down to find her chin wobbling, eyes wide with something she couldn’t name. “He’s like the luckiest boy ever,” she whispered fiercely, “he gets two mums? I don’t even get one.” Her pout nearly undid me. I bent, lifting her against my hip, kissing the corner of her damp.cheek. Shhh, you know how loved you are, kiddo. You’ve got us. A whole family.
Her tiny arms hooked around my neck. “I know,” she mumbled, pressing her forehead to mine.
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When I looked back, Reina was cradling Elliot’s face in both hands, her thumbs tracing the curve of his cheeks like she was memorizing him one feature at a time. Her voice broke soft and reverent. “How does he still look the same? After all these years?”
I exhaled slow, steady. “He was kept in a stasis spell. Technically, he still is. His body ages, but so slowly you might not notice. And… he won’t ever be able to die.”
4
Reina gasped. Her fingers tightened protectively on his cheeks, pulling him closer until his forehead pressed to hers. “Oh, my boy. I am so sorry. I am so, so sorry.”
Elliot sniffed, shaking his head, voice muffled against her shoulder. “It’s okay, Mumma. Look.” He waved one hand, the gesture almost childlike in its eagerness. “I got all this for my hard work.” He pointed around the room, at the cushion fortresses, the drawings taped to the wall, the shelves stacked with his treasures. His voice softened, brightened. “And I got another family too. This is Macey! She’s my best friend.”
At her name, Macey wriggled out of my arms and bounded forward, Fergus dangling from one hand. She didn’t hesitate, just plopped herself straight into their embrace like she’d belonged there the whole time.
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14:03 Wed<b>, </b>Sep
“Hi!” she beamed, cheeks still streaked with tears but her smile wild and bright.
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Reina let out a startledugh through her tears. “Hello.” Her arms curved wider, making space, and for the first time in years she looked like a mother surrounded by her children.
The sight of it hit me like a blow and a balm all at once.
For a second, I couldn’t breathe. Elliot’s face was pressed against hers like he’d found something he hadn’t known he was missing. Macey wriggled in too, her little body warm against theirs, Fergus squished between them all like he belonged in the circle. It should have felt right. It should have been nothing but joy. But my chest clenched instead. Because for the first time since Elliot hade into my life, I wasn’t the only mother in his world. I stood a little apart, hand at my stomach, feeling the steady pulse of the pup beneath. My whole life had been built on loss, on being left at borders and raised with scraps of love that never quite fit. And Elliot, Elliot had been mine. My boy. The one who
crawled into myp when the nightmares got too loud. The one who called me Mum without hesitation. And now he whispered that same word into: someone else’s shoulder, like it had always belonged there.
Xavier’s hand brushed mine, grounding me before the ache could spiral. His thumb circled
once, deliberate. “<i>He’s </i><i>still </i><i>yours</i><i>“</i><i>, </i>he mindlinked, warm and certain. <i>“</i><i>This </i><i>doesn’t </i><i>take </i><i>that </i>
<i>away</i><i>.</i>”
*
69
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Levi’s eyes flicked to me too, quiet but sharp, reading the tremor in my shoulders the way he always did. Haiden leaned against the doorframe, arms folded, watching the scene like
a man weighing storm against sunlight. Noah shifted closer, his presence steady as stone
at my back. They didn’t speak, but I felt it, every thread of their reassurance wrapping
around me.
Still<b>, </b>the whisper in my chest didn’t ease. Reina looked up, her eyes shining through the
tears. They were Elliot’s eyes, only older, heavy with years I couldn’t take from her. She brushed a hand through his hair with the kind of reverence I’d felt a hundred times myself. And when she smiled, small and breaking, she looked at me too.
“You’ve kept him alive,” she said softly, voice carrying the weight of gratitude and guilt all at once. “You’ve given him love. I can see it.”
I pressed my hand harder to my stomach. My baby shifted under my palm, a reminder, a tether. <i>You’re </i><i>still </i><i>Mum</i><i>, </i>I told myself. <i>You </i><i>always </i><i>will </i><i>be</i><i>. </i>