Page 45 of Through the Storm

She doesn’t say anything. She just wraps her arms around him, tight. Tighter than necessary.

He stiffens for half a second, then closes his eyes before hugging her back. He doesn’t let her go for a few minutes.

Breakfast turns into something between damage control and group therapy. I stay close to Katy, an arm always within reach.

Mateo keeps piling pancakes onto Ella’s plate every time she finishes one, like carbs might somehow fix heartbreak. Then again, the triplets have spent their entire lives acting like every problem can be solved with enough food.

Danny is predictably at Ella’s feet and hasn’t moved once. Not even when they started cooking bacon.

Ella doesn’t break. She doesn’t pretend, either. She just… stands there and lets us see her.

By the time we get home, Katy has stopped shaking. She keeps rubbing her stomach, whispering something I don’t quite catch. Something about being grateful for boring days.

Watching Ella face everything she’d hidden broke something open in Katy. She starts opening up to me, too, and telling me a little about what happened with her parents. About how scared she’s been.

She drops onto the couch and leans against me, sighing like she’s finally out of adrenaline.

I press a kiss to her hair. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she murmurs. “Just… still super sad.”

As she drifts off against my chest, I look down at her—the fire, the vulnerability, the fierce heart that’s somehow both armor and open wound—and think that maybe this is how it starts.

The kind of real love that survives the chaos that comes with life.

The kind that isn’t perfect or easy.

Just showing up, again and again.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

katy

SHE WON’T LET ME

I don’t knowwhat you bring someone when they’ve lost something so precious. Something I didn’t even know existed but is also precious to me. My niece.

Flowers feel wrong. A card feels worse.

So, I show up at Ella’s house with a small paper bag of her favorite chocolates and my heart in my throat.

She opens the door barefoot, hair in a messy bun, surprise flickering across her face.

“Hey.”

“Hey. I… um. I brought these.”

I hold out the bag like an offering.

She blinks, then laughs softly. “You didn’t have to.”

“I know.” I shrug. “But I wanted to.”

She lets me in without a second thought.

She sits on the floor with her back against the couch. Danny immediately rests his head on her thigh. I lower myself beside her, careful with my belly, and we sit there for a minute without speaking.

Finally, I say it.