The leather was warm. The cabin smelled of new car and faint lavender air freshener. Theodore settled opposite her, long legs stretched comfortably, and smiled—the same bright, relieved smile he'd worn when he first hugged her outside the store.
"Mom and Dad are excited," he said softly, almost reverently. "They've been waiting for this day longer than you can imagine."
Elena managed an awkward half-smile that didn't reach her eyes.
She stared at her hands folded in her lap.
She had just buried her mother.
The thought of meeting another set of parents—of being expected to feel anything at all toward them—made her stomach twist into cold knots.
*How do you love strangers who are supposed to be family?*
*How do you replace Saeun?*
She didn't think she could.
She didn't think she wanted to.
The drive to the Vetrov estate took forty-seven minutes.
