Third Person POV
Six years later.
The morning light fell across the gardens in long golden streaks, the kind that made everything it touched look like it had been placed there on purpose.
The flowers along the courtyard path had opened early, their colors bright and unhurried against the green. The fountain in the center sent a small spray of water into the air that caught the sun and scattered it into pieces before falling back into the basin.
Helen stood at the edge of the courtyard with her hand resting on the swell of her belly.
She was heavy now in a way that had become familiar over the past months, a constant, shifting weight that reminded her at every turn that she was not alone in her own body.
The child was due any day. She could feel the pressure of it low in her hips, the firmness of it against her ribs when she breathed too deeply, the small rolls and pushes that came at unexpected moments and still surprised her every time.
