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She sighs, grinning at me.

Dad frowns. “I feel like I’m missing something.”

“Yeah…” My brow cocks. “Same.”

Mom grins at me. “You went and fell in love with him, didn't you?"

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Dad blurts, scowling. “I mean⁠—”

“Hades.”

He clears his throat and smiles when Mom gives him "the look".

Mom smiles and refocuses on me.

"Well?" she asks softly.

I open my mouth. Then I close it again.

The answer is right there on my tongue. But it’s too big. Too terrifying. Too…real, and I don’t know what to do with it.

I think about Damiano, covered in blood, standing in the middle of his literal nightmare, and not giving a fuck, because he was doing it for me.

My chest goes tight.

“Yeah…I don’t think people like me get to do that.”

Mom is frowning as she takes my hands. “What, sweetheart, find love?”

I nod, swallowing hard.

“Bells,” Dad murmurs quietly, stepping close and cupping my face in his big, grease-stained hands. "You're not 'people like you.' You're our daughter. You are a wonderful, crazy, beautiful fucking creature, and you deserve whatever happiness you want from this world."

A lump forms in my throat.

“Happy endings don't happen to people like me," I say firmly. "I don't make people fall in love with me. I make them scared of me."

I go quiet for a moment, because that's something the three of us have never really talked about.

"I mean everyone," I say softly. "Everyone is scared of me."

“Sweetheart," Mom says gently, cupping my face and turning me toward her. “We’ve never once been scared of⁠—”

"It's okay, Mom. I mean…I get it." I shrug, aiming for casual and probably missing by a mile. “Look, I know what I am and what I'm capable of. I know I'm not the daughter you were hoping for⁠—”

"Bullshit," Dad says sharply.

I blink, startled by his tone.

"You are ten times the daughter I was hoping for," he hisses. “Ten times smarter. Ten times braver. Ten times stronger.” He looks me right in the eye. “You are a force of fucking nature, Bella."

My breath hitches. "And that's why you're scared of me."

Mom chokes out a cry as she wraps her arms around me and hugs me tight.

“Bella, baby. You’re ours,” she says fiercely. “Our little girl. Our beautiful Bella.”

Tears trickle down her cheeks as she looks me in the eye, her face crumpling as she smiles.