I look down at Sasha. “Like I’m learning a new language.”
She laughs, then winces, then laughs again because she can’t help it. “Let me see her.”
I settle onto the edge of the bed and tilt the bundle so she can look. Cassandra’s eyes go wide and soft. She touches the back of our daughter’s hand with one fingertip. Sasha makes a small sound, and Cassandra breathes it in like a gift.
“Hi,” she whispers, “my sweet girl.”
There’s a tap at the door before it opens. Clara stands there, trying not to run over to the bed. She’s almost fully recovered but still takes it easy. Alex hovers just behind her shoulder, the guard and the man who cannot stop checking her without being obvious.
“Can we?” Clara asks, her voice pitched low.
“Of course. Come in,” Cassandra says, reaching out with her free hand. “Meet your niece.”
Clara edges to the bed and leans on the rail. She looks down at the baby with an expression so emotional it breaks something open in me. “Oh, there you are,” she says softly.
I feel protective heat rise when Clara reaches, even though I know better. Cassandra sees it and raises an eyebrow at me. “Damien,” she says gently, “let Auntie Clara see her.”
I exhale, then hand our daughter to Clara, slow and careful. Clara fits her into the crook of her elbow, like she’s done it before in another life. Sasha scrunches her face, considers making a complaint, then decides the new lap is acceptable. Clara’s lips tremble. She looks at Cassandra, then at me, and blinks fast.
“She’s… she’s perfect. Sasha. My beautiful niece.”
Cassandra watches them with care and love.
I stand there, feeling something click into place. It’s not relief. It’s not victory. It’s a steadiness I’ve never known. Cassandra is propped up on pillows, hair wild, eyes bright. Clara is holding our daughter like the miracle that she is.
Alex nods at me once, a small seal on the moment. The room is simple. The day is quiet. There is no gunfire. No one is hunting us.
I could wait for a better time. I decide not to.
I reach into my jacket pocket. The box is small and dark. I didn’t plan to do it here, with hospital socks on my feet and a monitor singing backup. But the moment is perfect, and perfection is rare. I kneel next to Cassandra’s bed.
Clara catches the movement out of the corner of her eye and goes very still. Alex’s eyebrows go up and then down as he looks away, smiling to himself. Cassandra frowns, not because she’s unhappy, but because I have surprised her, and she doesn’t like surprises unless she ordered them.
“What are you doing?” she asks.
I open the box.
“Making it right,” I say, my voice steadier than I expected. “Making it permanent.”
Her eyes fill fast with tears as her brain catches up. “Damien.”
“This was never about a contract,” I tell her. It’s the truth I’ve been walking toward since she said my name like it could save me. “It used to be about claiming what was mine. Now it’s about me asking you to be my wife. It’s about you and me. Our child. Our future.”
She covers her mouth with one hand and shakes her head, then nods, like her body is arguing and agreeing in two languages. I think of all the ways I’ve taken without asking. I think of all the ways love forced me to learn to ask anyway.
“Marry me,” I say. “For real. For good.”
Cassandra laughs and cries in the same breath. She looks at our daughter in Clara’s arms, then at me.
Her chin lifts. “Yes,” she says, voice breaking. Then she says it again, stronger. “Yes.”
Clara cheers, then immediately hushes herself when the baby startles. “Sorry, sorry,” she whispers to the tiny face, rocking her gently. “He’s very intense, your father.”
I slide the ring onto Cassandra’s finger. It looks like it was meant to be there. I kiss her knuckles, then stand up. I lean over and kiss her mouth, slow and sure.
When I pull back, I look at our daughter again. She is asleep, unaware that a ring and a vow have shifted the ground under our feet. She will learn later. For now, her work is the work of infants—eat, sleep, demand, grow. We will do the rest.
I take her from Clara, who gives her up, proud and reluctant all at once.
