LOGINJANICE'S POVI don't even realize I've said it until the words are already floating through the apartment."Our family needs groceries."Silence.I freeze halfway through writing a shopping list.Eden looks up from the couch.Jack slowly lowers the dinosaur comic he was reading."Our family?" Eden repeats carefully.Heat rushes into my face."I meant…… I…..."Jack jumps off the couch before I can embarrass myself any further."I like that one!""What one?""Our family."He grins so brightly my heart almost gives up."We should keep it."Eden looks at me."So…..." I hide behind the shopping list. "......Don't.""I wasn't going to say anything.""You were absolutely going to.""I was."Jack claps once."Good. Family meeting."Neither of us remembers agreeing to one.Ten minutes later Jack stands in the middle of the kitchen wearing my apron that nearly reaches his ankles while holding a wooden spoon like a microphone."I've decided," he announces proudly, "that tonight I will cook dinne
EDEN'S POVThe kiss changes everything because it feels like coming home.When we finally pull apart, neither of us says anything for several long seconds as we simply stand there smiling like two complete idiots who forgot how conversations work.Janice is the first to laugh.".Well."I nod. "Well."She points at me."That was your fault.""My fault?""You stepped closer.""You kissed me.""You were standing there looking... looking—""Looking what?"She groans and hides her face in both hands."I don't know.""You started a sentence.""I regret it already.""I'm not letting you escape."She peeks at me through her fingers."You looked kissable."I blink."That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.""Oh, don't get used to it.""I absolutely will."She laughs again, shaking her head before lightly pushing my shoulder."You smile differently now.""So do you.""I do not.""You absolutely do.""I'll deny it forever.""You won't.""Probably not."The next morning I wake up earli
JANICE'S POVThe article is supposed to come out tomorrow morning.Strangely, I'm not thinking about tomorrow.I'm thinking about the way Eden quietly slips the envelope back into his jacket before anyone else at the party notices, then reaches for my hand beneath the table without looking at me, his fingers warm around mine like he's already made a decision I haven't heard yet."We're leaving," he says softly.I blink."What about the party?""They'll survive.""The anniversary—""They'll survive that too."Amanda appears beside us before I can argue."I heard my name."Eden doesn't even hesitate."I'm taking her home."Amanda studies both of us for one long second before smiling in that annoyingly knowing way she has."I figured.""You're not even going to ask why?""I've met both of you.""Fair."She gently squeezes my shoulder. "Go."The drive back is unusually quiet, but not the uncomfortable kind. The city lights slide across the windshield while soft music plays through the sp
EDEN'S POVThe black SUV changes everything.The moment Janice shows me the photographs from the aquarium, every instinct I've spent years trusting starts screaming that someone isn't just watching us anymore. They're studying us.Jack doesn't need to know that.He deserves one more ordinary morning.So when he wanders into the kitchen wearing dinosaur slippers and rubbing sleep from his eyes, I smile like nothing happened."Morning."He yawns."Why do adults always wake up before the sun?""Because bills exist."He frowns."I've decided never to have bills."Janice looks up from the frying pan."I support this dream.""You can't.""Why not?""Because you're an adult."She sighs dramatically."You caught me."Breakfast is loud, messy and completely normal as Jack insists pancakes taste better cut into dinosaur shapes, then complains mine looks more like "a confused chicken.""It has artistic value.""It needs medical attention."Janice laughs so hard she nearly drops the spatula."I
JANICE'S POVEvery answer creates another question, but the strange thing is that Eden doesn't leave after the photograph or after Amara's visit. He stays, and somehow that's the part I still haven't learned how to handle because every morning he walks into the kitchen like he's always belonged there, every evening Jack falls asleep halfway through telling him dinosaur facts, and every ordinary moment makes my heart more dangerous than any secret ever did.Saturday begins with a loud knock on my bedroom door."Mom! Dad! Wake up before I become an adult!"I blink at the ceiling."Jack…... it's seven-thirty.""Exactly.""Exactly what?""Half the day is already gone."A laugh escapes before I can stop it.When I step into the hallway, Jack is already wearing a tiny backpack almost bigger than he is while Eden stands beside him holding two travel mugs and looking equally confused."He woke me up twenty minutes ago," Eden says, taking a sip of coffee. "Apparently sleeping is now considere
EDEN'S POVThe photograph sits between us like it belongs to another lifetime, yet somehow it's still powerful enough to steal every bit of warmth from the ballroom. Around us the orchestra keeps playing, champagne glasses keep clinking and guests keep laughing, but none of it reaches me anymore because all I can see is Janice walking toward Chloe's apartment five years ago.She doesn't try to explain.She doesn't run.She just stares at the photograph until her fingers begin trembling."Janice…..."She closes her eyes."I know.""No." I shake my head gently, sliding the photograph back into the envelope before anyone else notices. "Not here."She looks at me, surprised."You're…... you're not going to ask?""I am.""When?"I reach for her hand beneath the table, hiding the movement from the guests surrounding us."When you're ready to answer."For a second she simply looks at our hands.Then her fingers quietly tighten around mine. Neither of us says another word.The rest of the ga
JANICE'S POVThe truth is finally out.For five years I feared the revelation and spent countless nights imagining what would happen when Eden learned the truth, yet somehow everything feels more uncertain now than it did before because secrets are predictable.The future isn't.Morning arrives wit
JANICE'S POVJack called him Dad.The word keeps replaying inside my head while morning sunlight spills through the hospital windows, and for the first time in five years I don't push it away because hearing it felt right.I stand outside Jack's room holding a cup of terrible hospital coffee while
EDEN'S POVThe word hits harder than any accusation ever could and for several seconds I simply stare at Janice because my brain refuses to move fast enough to catch up with what she just said, while the city lights glow beyond the hospital windows and every missing piece I've been carrying for wee
JANICE'S POVI've imagined this conversation for five years.Thousands of times, in hospital waiting rooms, sleepless nights and quiet moments when Jack wasn't looking, and somehow every version ended badly, yet none of them ended like this.Eden walks beside me without speaking as we leave Jack's







