Part 1

When my brother passed away, I put my own dreams aside to raise his twin sons, who were only five years old at the time. For thirteen years, I cared for them, protected them, and loved them as if they were my own. But on the night of their eighteenth birthday, after everyone had gone home, they placed a legal notice in front of me that shattered everything I thought I knew.

Morning sunlight stretched across my kitchen counter as I carefully placed eighteen candles on the chocolate cake I had baked before dawn.