#Chapter 196: A Fresh Hope

Agnes “What do you think of this couch?” I pointed at a plush sectional sofa on my laptop screen. It had been two and a half weeks since Elijah’s bombshell about Thea, and we’d fallen into an unspoken agreement—act normal on the outside, freak out on the inside. Elijah peered over my shoulder, his coffee mug hovering near his lips. “It’s... big.” “We have a big family room now,” I said, clicking through to another color option. “And it matches the accent wall we picked. Besides, Thea likes to sprawl when she watches movies.” He nodded absently, and I knew his mind wasn’t on furniture. Neither was mine, really. But we had to keep up appearances. We had to pretend everything was normal until we knew for sure. The DNA samples had been sent to a testing facility several packs away. Elijah had been meticulous about it—making sure the samples were handled only by people we trusted, using fake names on the paperwork, paying in cash. We couldn’t risk anyone