~HUNTER~
The sound of my mother's laughter drifted through the mansion like music I had never heard before. I followed it to the main parlor, stopping in the doorway when I saw something that made my chest tighten.
Mother was on the floor. On the actual floor, her expensive dress spread around her like flower petals, playing with wooden blocks with Caesar.
She was smiling…really smiling…in a way I hadn't seen since I was very small.
"And this one goes here," she was saying, helping Caesar stack another block. "Very good, darling. You're so clever."
Caesar beamed up at her. "Granny Eleanor, can we build a castle?"
Granny Eleanor. The name hit me like a punch to the gut.
She had never let me call her anything but Mother. Even as a child, even when I had begged for something warmer, m
