Elena’s POV

Morning arrives slowly in our house, not with alarms or urgency but with the quiet sounds of life settling into itself, the hum of the coffee machine in the kitchen, the distant murmur of Cole’s voice as he moves around downstairs, and the soft weight of a baby shifting inside me as if reminding me, gently but insistently, that time is running out and that our family is about to change forever.

I wake before anyone else most days now, not because I want to, but because my body ...