Chapter 258

​Emilia takes the news of Adrian’s death quietly, sitting at the same kitchen table where Elias told her the rest of it days earlier, her hands wrapped around a mug that’s long gone cold.

​“I loved him,” Emilia says softly. “The man who held you when you were born and brought home flowers every Friday just because he could. I loved him with everything I had.”

​Eli turns from the window, resting his hands in his pockets. “I know, Mom.”

​“When Carver came to the door all those years ago and told me he was dead, I thought my life had ended too,” she continues, looking up at her son. Her eyes are red-rimmed, but her posture remains steady. “I spent ten years mourning a ghost. And then he came back, but he wasn’t the man I lost. He was a stranger with your father’s face.”

​Eli takes a breath, the weight in his chest shifting slightly. “Do you wish I had done something else?”

​Emilia sets the picture she was holding down on the side table slowly. She sta