I dial Trevor. He answers on the second ring.
"I need to tell you something," I say.
"If you hurt her again—" His voice is cautious.
"I proposed. She said yes."
Long silence.
"Trevor?"
"You better not fuck this up, Williams."
"I won't."
Another pause. "...Congratulations. Really."
"Thank you. For everything. For beating sense into me. For being there for her."
"Just love my sister. That's all I ask."
"I will. Every day."
After we hang up, Bailey and I sit on her couch, her hand in mine, looking at the ring.
"We're getting married," she says.
"We're having a baby."
"We're building a family."
"Scared?"
"Terrified." She smiles. "You?"
"Same. But I'm more excited than scared."
"Me too."
She kisses me, and I taste salt from both our tears.
This isn't the fairy tale ending where everything is magically fixed. We'll have hard days. I'll still go to therapy twice a week. She'll still be scared sometimes that I'll run.
But we're choosing each other. Fear and all.
And that's enough.
Epilogue: Bailey
One year later.
Harper's cry cuts through the baby monitor at 6 AM, and I'm already calculating how much sleep I've gotten.
Two hours since the 4 AM feeding. Maybe an hour and a half before that. Three hours total if I'm being generous.
I should get up. I start to move.
But Daniel's already sliding out of bed, padding toward the nursery on bare feet. His voice comes through the monitor, soft and rough with sleep.
