Her tiny fingers flexed, brushing my skin, and it hit me so hard I gasped.
This tiny human was all mine.She was mine to protect, mine to love, mine to raise, and she would never know the version of the world that broke me.She would only know the one I build for her.Everyone moved around me, but I was lost in my daughter.
A soft knock pulled me from the haze.
“Are you ready?”Maggie whispered, brushing hair off my forehead gently.
I nodded.“Yeah… let them in.”
Kenzie cracked open the door.And then in walked Eli and John.They approached slowly, as if stepping into something sacred.Eli froze mid-step when he saw her.His hand lifted to his mouth, his shoulders trembling.
“Tess,” he breathed.“She’s beautiful.”
John removed his worn cap, eyes glistening.He stepped closer and swallowed thickly.
“She is perfect,” he murmured.“You did good, Tessa.”
Maggie choked on a small laugh-cry.
I looked down at the tiny face pressed to my chest, then back up at the people who loved her already.
“I want you to meet her,” I said, voice trembling but sure.
Everyone leaned in without crowding, a circle forming around us.
“This is…” I steadied my breath.“This is Elodie Carson.”
The moment her name left my lips, something in the room shifted, softened, like the air itself bowed in welcome.Like this was always how it was meant to be, her coming into this world.
“Carson,” Maggie repeated with a smile that shook.
“Little melody,” John whispered.“Beautiful name.”
Kenzie leaned into her mom.Her hands clasped at her chest.“She’s already so loved,” she said, voice thick.“And she’s going to know all about her daddy, the good, the stubborn, the soft… I’ll make sure of it.”
A ripple of soft laughter went through the room.
Then Eli moved closer, and he placed a hand on her back, so gentle for a man so big.
“Hi, Elodie,” he said quietly.“I’m your Uncle Eli.And I… love you, little one.I’m not going anywhere.”
She opened her eyes right then, two dark, soulful pools blinking up at him.Eli’s knees almost buckled.Maggie let out a broken sob.Even John had to look away for a second.The room fell into awed silence.And in that moment, surrounded by grief and hope and love twisted together, I felt something settle inside me.Like for the first time in months, I wasn’t falling through space.
I was rooted.
To her.
To them.
To myself again.
Chapter 55 - Tessa
We had slowly found our rhythm as the two of us.Well, in between all the visitors and helping hands.
It was a combination of soft breaths, long nights, tears from both of us...The rhythmic creak of the floorboards as the world settles for the night.
I ease myself into my dad’s recliner, the one that now has Maggie's quilt draped over it, the familiar creak greeting me like an embrace I didn’t realize I still remembered.I still needed.Elodie whimpers against my collarbone, her tiny fists opening and closing, her lips searching.
