Elena Vale, the elder, met her namesake granddaughter three weeks after the birth, traveling the short distance from her garden home despite the winter cold, insisting that nothing short of genuine illness would keep her from this particular visit.
She held the infant carefully, tears tracking silently down her weathered face as she studied the small, sleeping features. "She has your father's chin," she told Mercer softly. "I can already see it, even this young."
"I hoped you'd approve of the name," Mercer said, watching his mother with the infant, genuine warmth filling his chest at the sight.
"Approve." Elena's voice carried genuine emotion beneath the simple word. "Mercer, I spent twelve years believing I'd never hold anything resembling family again, certain I'd die in that house ha
