A Reborn Bride Pearl Emerging from Dust by Sally Garcia

At the time, he was away filming on location, so he didn't make it back in time.

But the family portrait was missing someone else, too—

Calliope.

Staring at the photo, he suddenly understood how Calliope must have felt, like she'd been left out, abandoned.

Ulysses felt a mess of emotions.

He sat down on the couch, looking kind of lost, like a puppy left out in the rain.

"Hey, Ulysses, what's up with you? You finally managed to come home, but you look like you've got the weight of the world on your shoulders."

Valerian Jewell gave Ulysses a suspicious look.

He'd never seen Ulysses like this before.

He knew Ulysses had been doing great with his acting gigs lately. So he should have been in high spirits.

But right now, he just looked... empty.

"Valerian!" Ulysses finally realized Valerian had somehow ended up sitting right next to him.

"Did something happen?" Valerian asked.

"Yeah, Ulysses, what's wrong? Did something go wrong with work?" Horatio piped up from his wheelchair across from them, looking just as confused.

frowned. "I ran into someone at the airport

The others all

"Calliope," Ulysses said quietly.

airport?" Valerian sounded surprised. "What was she doing there? Going

At first, I thought she was there to pick me up. I actually felt kind of happy

hide the annoyance in

her other brothers, but hadn't even asked when he'd be

was it? It couldn't have

Valerian was thinking aloud.

picking up

his head. "You guys would never

at each other, even more

What did you see?" Horatio urged him on,

was picking up her brothers. But

quietly, disappointment heavy

little sister. She'd come to the airport to pick someone up and he drun right into her But she wasn't there

He felt let down.

the people she'd -guys

come

hew the disappointment

into something sharper.

they all

Horatio exchanged glances, the realization