ELLA
I waited until the house was silent before I opened the journal.
It was past two in the morning when I finally crept back into my room. Liam had been asleep when I returned, and Serene and Sarah were nowhere to be seen.
I locked my bedroom door and pulled the curtains tight before sitting on my bed with my mother's words in my hands.
The leather was soft beneath my fingers. Worn smooth by years of touch. I traced the gold letters of her name and tried to imagine her sitting somewhere quiet with a pen in her hand and her thoughts spilling onto the pages.
I opened to the first entry and began to read. The early pages were mundane. Notes about pack meetings, social obligations, and the small frustrations of daily life.
She wrote about my father with obvious love. About how he mad
