“I love you. So fucking much,” he whispers, removing the ring and sliding it onto my finger.
He lifts my hand to his lips, pressing a gentle kiss to the ring.
“I love you more than you could ever know,” I reply.
“Is forever too long?”
Amid the crowd’s jubilant cheers, I draw his face close to mine.
“Forever isn’t long enough,” I whisper against his lips.
Epilogue Two
Alek
Five Years Later
Thehospitalroompulseswith wild, electric energy as Hayvin pants on the bed. Strands of damp hair cling to her flushed cheeks, and she grits her teeth as another contraction seizes her belly.
I have never seen anything as breathtaking as her in this moment.
“Here comes another one, Hayvin. Are you ready?” her doctor questions.
Hayvin’s hand crushes mine before she snarls at me. “If you ever touch me with that fucking demon between your legs again, I’m going to make you choke on it.”
So fucking beautiful.
“Okay, baby girl,” I croon, ignoring Everleigh’s snickers.
Hayvin anchors her hands under her knees as she bears down. She grunts and pushes while Everleigh and I count down the seconds with her doctor. When we reach ten, Hayvin slumps back to the bed with a sob.
I wipe the sweat from her face with the cool cloth the nurse hands me. “You’re doing so good, baby. You’re brave as fuck, bringing our little girl into this world. I love you so much.”
She needs light in this storm, so I bury my own fear deep inside, determined to be her anchor.
My wife’s voice breaks, tears glimmering in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean those cruel words.”
I laugh softly, kissing her through the mask. “At the moment you did, and it’s okay. I couldn’t possibly love you any less. Curse me all you need as long as you make it through this in one piece.”
“We. As long aswemake it through.”
I kiss her brow, another contraction distracting her at her need to push.
I love my daughter enough to take a bullet for her, no question. But what I feel for my wife defies words. When our daughter is grown and gone, Hayvin will still be my world. I vowed to love her, honor her, and put her above all else the day she became mine. She is the air I breathe every morning.
The past five years have overflowed with joy, but shadows have tried to smother our love. We fought through darkness that threatened to pull us under.
Hayvin had her first miscarriage six months after our wedding. She was only ten weeks along. We grieved and were sad, but the second one nearly broke us. She was nineteen weeks when the ultrasound tech couldn’t detect the heartbeat. My wife’s hospitalization and delivery of our tiny son caused her much trauma in the days following that tragic news. They asked us if we wanted to see our baby, and an automatic refusal satheavily on my tongue. But it wasn’t just my decision, and no way in fuck was I going to be selfish and put my needs above Hayvin’s.
Never again.
I called both our therapists, who quickly agreed to hold an emergency session at the hospital.
Together, Hayvin and I said a sorrowful goodbye to our baby boy.
Healing from that loss took years. We promised ourselves no more children, and Hayvin started birth control. Still, a piece of us clung to hope, because when I offered a vasectomy, she refused without hesitation.
For a while, our days were shrouded in darkness. Anger and pain simmered with no place to land. Hayvin abandoned her music, her joy lost, while I drowned myself in work. Still, every night, we clung to each other, desperate to mend. Therapy helped, but it was time and our stubborn love that finally pulled us back into the light.
