Julian's POV
Christmas was quiet. We didn't plan it elaborately. Elena came for dinner, Thomas and Vivian Hale came in the afternoon, Richard sent gifts and a card that Nadia read without comment and put on the counter where it stayed for three days before she moved it to the drawer that meant she wasn't ready to decide how to feel about it yet.
I noticed. Didn't mention it.
Thomas held Elise for an hour straight and talked to her about patents in the specific detail that made Vivian roll her eyes and Nadia smile in the particular way she did when something reminded her of who her father was underneath the mistakes he'd made.
Vivian brought food nobody asked for and rearranged my kitchen twice and apologized to Nadia in the middle of washing up, quietly, thinking I couldn't hear. I was
