my bi

sted slightly off, a metallic

eo, handed it to me with a smi

s tore through me,

ame th

uch

e marble cold against my skin, the smooth

foun

ng face, so much like Madeleine'

s voice flat, devoid of any warmth

p tr

harder than th

rying to be a mother

ng to exist where

summoned confirm

hadn't even known w

rmed hope, e

spread through me,

fe, was a beautiful

as just

me, his ey

ht?" he asked, a faint s

n't a

s there

ew. I

ing in his father's gilded

the child I had r

Leo," I said,

d, a short, di

stupid, Ava. Where

certainty of my entrapment

as too broken,

he was

red, and through the cracks, a dif

ht of a