Chapter 138

Nial. The house had never been this quiet before. Not since Sofia and the kids had come into our lives, filling every corner of our world with noise, warmth, and something we never knew we craved—peace. A twisted kind of peace, given our lives, but peace all the same. Now, standing in the dimly lit living room, the quiet felt suffocating. Like the silence before a storm but this time the storm was ragging inside of every single one of us. Jade was asleep upstairs, curled up in the mountain of stuffed dinousaurs Sofia kept buying him, despite his insistence that he was "too big" for them. Lorelai had dozed off hours ago, wrapped in Sofia’s arms, while she ran her fingers throughour little girl's hair, murmuring soft lullabies in Italian. I had stayed just long enough to watch the way she melted into our children, her love for them so deep it left something aching in my chest. Then I had left, unable to shake the restlessness thrumming under my skin. My brothers were scattered throughout