The Fourth Bride by Carole Gill

that, they were gentle and did no one harm.

Still, Edward never knew about them. “Best not to tell people. ... We can never trust the living.”

Mama’s words of advice, and I nodded.

Tragic words said with sadness and regret, and no living person could possibly understand this heartbreaking truth.

Yes, Rose is my mama for I recall no other.

Though there was another who had given birth to me, one cruelly killed by vampires.

I think I half expected a dramatic announcement, a clarification of the circumstances of my birth. I was after all a human child in a family of vampires.

“Dia, my child. You are much loved…” She went on to explain how she had adopted me. “Your own mother perished by evil vampires.”

I was told of the horrible circumstances of how I came to be orphaned and then saved.

“From the first moment I saw you, Dia, I loved you as though you were my own.”

We embraced then. “I am yours and always