Serena entered a cooperation agreement and accepted legal consequences for withholding information after the cliff. She also began counseling, not because a court ordered her to, but because she said she was tired of letting other people define what love was supposed to cost.
As for me, I stopped being Elena Hale.
On a warm morning in June, with Julian asleep against my shoulder, I stood in a courthouse and legally became Elena Marlow Cross.
Not because Adrian asked.
He didn’t.
In fact, when I told him, he looked startled.
“You don’t have to take my name,” he said.
“I know.”
“You owe me nothing.”
“I know that too.”
“Then why?”
I looked down at Julian, whose tiny fist had captured a strand of my hair.
“Because Marlow is where I came from,” I said. “And Cross is part of the truth that was taken from me. I’m not choosing one over the other. I’m choosing the whole story.”
