The Mercers remained part of it, not because the law required them to stay, but because Megan asked them to.
At first, Rowan did not understand.
After one visit, when Abigail kissed Lily’s forehead before leaving and Megan stood at the window watching their car disappear, he said quietly, “Doesn’t it hurt?”
Megan kept her eyes on the driveway. “Yes.”
“Then why keep opening the door?”
“Because Lily reaches for her.”
Rowan said nothing.
Megan turned to him. “I lost a year with my daughter. I won’t make Lily lose people she loves just so my pain feels tidier.”
That sentence stayed with him.
It became, in time, the foundation of everything.
Lily came home to the cottage permanently on a Sunday morning in October.
The trees had turned copper and gold. Noah and Ellis were on a blanket in the living room, both attempting to roll into the same stuffed rabbit. Megan knelt near them, pretending not to cry as Abigail carried Lily through the door.
