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When I reach the doorway, the entire bathroom comes into view. Serena is tossing colorful bath bombs into the tub, squealing every time one hits the water with a loud splash, but I can’t even smile at the chaos unfolding in front of me.

Kneeling beside the bathtub, encouraging her to throw in more, is a woman.

A woman I know far too well.

I know her dressed, undressed, happy, devastated… and my heart kicks violently against my ribs.

“What are you doing here?” I ask without thinking.

She startles at the sound of my voice, probably because she wasn’t expecting anyone else to be in the house, and immediately rises to her feet.

“Uncle Zaaayn,” Serena shouts with a bright smile, lifting both hands toward me.

I keep my attention on Selene for another moment, trying to figure out why she’s here, before finally stepping closer to the bathtub and leaning down to my niece, who is completely soaked, including her hair.

“Are you having fun, sweetheart?” I ask, slipping one hand into the water and squeezing one of the dissolving bath bombs. It melts in my palm, purple foam sliding between my fingers.

And the color instantly reminds me of the hair of the person standing a few feet away from me, perfectly still.

“Where are Mommy and Daddy?”

“They left for a party,” Serena answers distractedly, focused on the toys floating around the tub. “Mommy looked like a fairy,” she adds, looking up at me with wide-eyed amazement, her eyes practically sparkling. “She was the prettiest.”

I smile at that, unexpectedly moved by how obvious her love for her mother is.

“You’re right, sweetheart,” I tell her softly. “Your mommy is incredibly beautiful. And you’re just as beautiful as her.”

I lean down and press a quick kiss on her wet cheek, but I don’t straighten up fast enough, and her tiny wet hands grab onto my shirt—which had been white about two seconds ago. Now it’s stained with every color she had on her fingers from the bath bombs.

And wet… very wet.

“I don’t know how long you’ve been in here,” I say with a laugh, “but I think it’s time to get out of the bath.”

She pouts instantly, her entire expression falling into sadness.

“Yeah, good luck with that,” Selene murmurs quietly from somewhere to my right, probably not intending for me to hear her at all.

So that’s what she had been trying to do—convince Serena to get out of the tub.

“Baby, I brought a few new toys with me,” I tell Serena with a grin. “If you don’t want to get out, I guess I’ll just go play with them by myself.”

I gesture toward the bathroom door, even taking a step in that direction.

“No, no,” she says, already scrambling to her feet. “I play,” she adds quickly, trying to lift one leg over the edge of the bathtub.

“Easy, easy.” I move fast to catch her before she slips. “First, let me rinse you off.”

“Incredible…”

I hear that same voice again as I reach for the showerhead.

But once again, I choose to ignore her because I don’t know how to act around her anymore, how to speak to her. And more than anything, I don’t want to look into her eyes and see disgust, revulsion, or disappointment—the same things I saw the night I realized I’d lost her.

Once I finish washing Serena off, I wrap her in a large towel, place a smaller one over her head, then scoop her into my arms and carry her back to her room.

Selene is already laying out her pajamas on the bed, but before anything else, I notice her turning on the hair dryer.

I set my niece down carefully on the mattress, then step back and sink into a pink armchair tucked into the corner of the room.