Her smile is tired but radiant.“You made it,” she whispers, her voice hoarse, raw, but filled with warmth.“It’s okay.You didn’t miss anything.”
I stagger to her side, my hand shaking as I cup her cheek.My voice breaks.“You’re lying.I missed everything.”
Her lips curve, soft and certain.“You’re here now.That’s all that matters.”
I kiss her damp forehead, her temple, her lips, again and again, needing to taste her, needing to know she’s real.Tears sting my eyes, but I don’t care.“You’re incredible,” I whisper fiercely.“Stronger than anyone I’ve ever known.You brought our son into this world all by yourself.”
A shaky laugh slips from her lips.“We brought him.Two halves of a whole, remember?”
The words tear me open.“Always.”
The nurse steps closer, her voice gentle.“He’s waiting for his father.”
Andrea lifts the bundle toward me, her arms trembling from the effort.My hands shake as I take him, my body instinctively adjusting to cradle something so impossibly small, so impossibly precious.The weight of him nearly undoes me.He’s warm.Soft.Real.His tiny fist flexes, his mouth opens in a silent cry, and my world shifts on its axis.
I’ve held weapons that changed the course of wars.Signed deals that shifted the balance of power.Spilled blood that built empires.But none of it compares to this.None of it matters.This, this small life in my arms, is heavier than anything I’ve ever carried.This is love in its purest form.This is legacy.This is eternity.
The breath leaves my lungs.My vision blurs.For the first time in my life, I feel undone.Destroyed.Rebuilt in the same heartbeat.
Andrea watches me, tears streaming down her cheeks, her smile trembling but proud.“What do you think?”she asks softly.
My throat is too tight.My voice is rough, broken.“He’s mine.Ours.He’s everything.”
I look down at my son again, his tiny face scrunching as he lets out a thin wail.My chest cracks wide open.The sound doesn’t scare me, it fills me.Because it’s proof he’s alive, proof he’s strong, proof that Andrea gave me more than I ever dreamed I could have.
I press a kiss to his forehead, my tears dripping onto his skin.“I swear to you,” I whisper, fierce and unshakable, “I’ll protect you with everything I am.Just like I protect your mother.No one will touch you.No one will harm you.You are my heart, my blood, my forever.”
I sit on the edge of the bed, wrapping my arm around Andrea while I cradle our boy between us.She leans into me, her head on my shoulder, her body trembling with exhaustion but her smile radiant.“He looks like you,” she murmurs.
I laugh, broken and choked.“God help him, then.”
Her tired laugh joins mine, and the sound is everything.Healing.Whole.
I look at her, the woman who turned my world upside down, who taught me that love isn’t weakness but the fiercest strength a man can wield.My voice shakes, but I don’t hold back.“I love you, Andrea.More today than yesterday.More tomorrow than today.Always more.”
Her fingers brush my cheek, her eyes heavy but sure.“And I love you.Two halves of a whole.Forever.”
We kiss, slow and reverent, our son warm and perfect between us.His small cry interrupts, and Andrea laughs again, brushing his cheek with her fingertip.“He knows he’s loved already.”
“He’ll never doubt it,” I vow.“Not a day in his life.”
As I sit there, holding everything I never knew I needed—Andrea’s love, our son, this fragile, beautiful future—I realize something.Love hasn’t made me softer.It hasn’t weakened me.It’s made me stronger.Fiercer.More dangerous to anyone who dares threaten what’s mine.Because now I have everything to fight for.Everything to live for.
Andrea.Our son.Our family.
I was born to lead.To kill.To survive.But I was remade the day she looked at me with fire in her eyes and told me she loved me.And now, with our son in my arms, I know I’ll never be the same man again.
And I don’t want to be.
Two halves.
One whole.
Forever.
The End
