She had always been theirs.

From the moment she was born, Ellie existed in the orbit of the triplets. Three years younger, impossibly small, always toddling after them with wide eyes and scraped knees. Their parents were best friends, so their lives braided together naturally. Family dinners. Holidays. Beach days. Sleepovers that turned into early mornings and tangled blankets.

And every time, it was the same.

They took care of her.

Chris made her laugh until her stomach hurt. Nick defended her like it was his life’s purpose. And Matt… Matt had been the softest with her. The brightest. The one who let her crawl into his lap during movies, who held her hand crossing streets, who smiled at her like she was something fragile and precious.

She was their girl.

Especially his.

But time changed things.

At seventeen and twenty, distance crept in like a quiet fog. Texts faded. Facetime calls stopped. Parties happened without her. Their worlds expanded, and hers stayed small.

And then everything shattered.

The phone call. The words that didn’t make sense. The accident.

Her parents were gone.

Within days, the triplets had her on a plane to California, insisting she wasn’t staying alone. Not when she still had them.

She arrived numb, heart hollow, carrying grief that felt too heavy for her body.

Matt barely looked at her.

He was distant. Sharp. Cold in a way she’d never known him to be. He brushed past her, avoided her eyes, spoke in clipped sentences when he had to speak at all.

It hurt more than she wanted to admit.

What Ellie didn’t know was that Matt was furious at the world. At fate. At the cruelty of it all. He was angry that she’d been hurt. Angry that he couldn’t fix it. Angry that loving her now felt terrifying because he could lose her too.

So he pushed.

That first day, that first week, that first month.

But late at night, when the house was quiet, Matt lay awake replaying memories of her laugh, her tiny hand in his, the way she used to look at him like he was safety.

He loved her.

He just couldn’t bring himself to say it.

Not when losing her would break him completely.