Page 10 of Broken Destiny

I shuddered with the realization.

So many pieces now fit together.

The house with the blue door… Cole… Emma’s face… the funeral.

Each image had appeared in that vision long before reality unfolded, and now the memories returned. But one question stayed in my mind.

The wedding.

I remembered seeing a wedding after the funeral in that same vision, yet it was not the wedding I had shared with Cole in our backyard. That ceremony had been simple, intimate, filled with love—but the wedding in my vision had felt different.

Was it someone else’s? Maybe Lucas’s or Emma’s when they grow up? Or Elle’s children?

The thought hovered in my mind, and I reached for the magazine lying in front of me while the children switched off the TV and began playing with their toys on the floor.

Milo padded across the living room and lowered himself beside me, pressing himself close against my leg as he always did. He had grown attached to me from the time Cole passed away, rarely leaving my side at night and curling up beside me on the bed, while Oreo usually wandered between Lucas and Emma, shuffling from one child to the other before finally choosing a spot to sleep.

Suddenly, Emma screamed at her brother.

“Lucas,” I said, turning toward them. “What’s going on with you guys?”

“Nothing, Mama,” Lucas replied quickly. “I took the toy to fix it for Emma, and she’s now yelling.”

“Emma,” I said, looking directly at my daughter. She stared back at me, her small face scrunched up. “Your brother is trying to help you. Stop screaming. It is not nice. Apologize, please.”

Whimpering softly, Emma stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Lucas in a clumsy hug.

Watching them reconcile made my chest ache. They had each other, and they always would have each other.

Flipping through the pages of the magazine absentmindedly, my attention drifted across advertisements and photographs—until one picture caught my eye.

A heaviness expanded in my core, and my muscles went weak.

I squeezed my eyes shut, convinced I was imagining things.

This can’t be real.

Slowly, I opened them again.

And there it was.

Caleb Evans and Tatiana Myers' Summer Engagement Celebration!

The headline seemed to pulse on the page, the letters expanding and shrinking.

A selfie of the two of them filled the centre—Tatiana smiling brightly beside him, her hand resting proudly on his chest, adiamond ring sparkling under the camera’s flash. The next page displayed photographs from an engagement shoot—perfect poses, elegant clothing, polished smiles.

A life moving forward and a future being built.

I sat motionless, staring at the images, my mind struggling to catch up with what my eyes were seeing.

Caleb.

Emma’s father.

Caleb.

The name echoed inside my head, stirring emotions I had buried so carefully beneath layers of responsibility and survival.