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A FOG HAD CREEPED OVER HEMLOCK GROVE AS AUTUMN SETTLED IN. The New England weather reminded Rory that it had been nearly a year since she had come to the small town with a shattered heart and nothing left for her. The end of August shocked her as she realized her life had moved exponentially forward; she had found her soulmate in Roman Godfrey and had their beautiful baby girl Solara, they lived in their cozy house next to the lake, and she was happy.
They had gone on an afternoon walk as a family. Roman had come home early for a Friday, with the gala the next night, Rory was stressed enough as it was. Even though Roman didn't like the idea of leaving Selena alone in their house free to do whatever she wished while they were gone, Rory and Solara were his first priority.
"Ba-ba-ba-ba," Solara gurgled in her Fendi stroller as she and Roman followed the path in silence. Her baby talk had become more pointed, meaningful. She smiled at people and pretty things of amusement, cried in boredom and hunger, glared in the direction of the toys she hated and stuffy designer clothes until Rory exchanged it for more comfortable and versatile apparel. The design choice of her favorite stroller was Roman's of course. He had expensive tastes for the CEO of a multibillionaire company.
Sometimes, it was easy to forget Rory had come from privilege and wealth. A legacy. Her mother had tried to mask it–she had given up her claim to the Reyes Foundation years ago. Stella found their family sometimes too ambitious for their own good; now that Rory knew the truth of their blood, she agreed as well. The innate ability to heal with a touch, to see another's source of pain and know exactly the treatment course to fix it shouldn't be mixed in with the politics of the United State's healthcare.
In the top hospitals of Hemlock Grove and San Antonio, Rory's mother had once been called a trailblazer, a comet of brilliance and medical innovation in her field following her mother. Even Dr. Carlisle Cullen, in this lifetime of forged documents and records, was nothing in comparison to the brilliance and perfect record of Dr. Stella Reyes, formerly known as Dr. Stella Aden when she had first begun as a resident in Hemlock Grove's hospital before Godfrey Industries bought it out.
Stella was just about to be promoted to the chief of surgery when her family had collapsed around her, a black hole that altered the course of the trailblazer. The one life she couldn't save–her own daughter. Already distant from the pulls of her family, Stella cut them off more so by moving to a tiny speck of a town, the opposite of the East Coast, and accepting a position below her previous pay-grade. She had retreated, conquered by life and its tragedies.
