Arianna had worn black. Her long dark hair had blended with her velvet dress, and Raven had insisted on placing red roses in her hands. Those roses had always brought her joy, he’d explained, though of course, the greatest joy of her life had been her son. Jack could see it in her warm brown eyes—not just in memory, but in the present moment, because Arianna was in front of her once more. Over on the TV screen, Raven’s mother sat at the breakfast table with her son and her husband, laughing over mushroom and zucchini omelets.

Raven’s favorite.

For a moment, Jack was mesmerized. Arianna had on a black shirt and jeans, and her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail. She looked more casual than Evelyn had ever looked in her white designer dresses and loud, clacking heels. When Arianna tousled her young son’s hair, Jack’s heart squeezed. When she lifted a zucchini to her husband’s lips, Jack heard the soft sound of a sob.

It had come from the sofa.

She probably should’ve known he was there, considering pictures had been splayed out across the living room floor like a puzzle he was desperately trying to solve. But she hadn’t been able to see him. His head was clutched in his hands, dark curls poking through his fingers. His shoulders jerked up and down as he wept. Jack backed away slowly, leaving Stefan Holloway to his grief, but his head snapped up as she neared the living room’s french doors.

“Poppy,” he said, his eyes narrowed as if he were looking at a long-forgotten memory.

“I was just leaving. I mean, I was just visiting Raven when I heard…” She fumbled for the perfect thing to say. The helpful thing, which would drag him out of the darkness. But Jack had spent the morning clutching Raven to her chest, when she wasn’t climbing in and out of windows, and her arms were shaking with exhaustion.

She couldn’t carry anyone else.

Still, she strode over to the plush white sofa when Stefan beckoned her closer. She sat, stiffly, on the corner. He’d paused the old family video, and Arianna seemed frozen in time, smiling and happy. Jack wanted to stare at her forever. She didn’t even ask why Stefan was watching videos of his first wife when he’d only just lost his second. Loss seemed to beget loss in this family, tragedy circling itself like a snake that never tired of devouring its own tail.

Stefan must’ve been thinking the same thing. He wiped the tears from his tired eyes, still staring at the image on the screen. “Sometimes I think this family is cursed. If anything ever happens to me—”

“It won’t.”