Emery shifts beside me, her hand gliding over the soft curve of her belly.It’s growing.Beautiful.Everything.That one small gesture kills me in the best way, because I can see it—the way she already loves our daughter.Fierce and quiet, like fire burning with purpose.
“I still can’t believe this is real,” she whispers, eyes turned skyward like maybe the stars finally answered her.
I press my lips to her hair.“Believe it,” I murmur, voice rough.“It’s ours, Emery.All of it.”
She turns toward me, eyes soft but still burning with that familiar fire.
“Do you ever think about back then?When we were just kids, staring up at the stars?”
I exhale slowly, like I’m trying to breathe out all the years I spent without her.I tighten my arms around her, pulling her closer, as if I hold her tight enough, gravity won’t let go.
“Every damn day,” I rasp.“That’s how I made it through.Every broken night, every fucked-up piece of me, I held onto you.Even if it was just a memory.Even when it hurt like hell.”
Her fingers come up to trace along my jaw, soft and sure.
“I missed you,” she says.“Even when I swore I didn’t.Even when I told myself I hated you… it was always a lie.I was always yours.Even when I didn’t want to be.Even then.”
I drag my thumb across her cheek, slow and reverent, as if this is a prayer I never learned the words for.As if touching her is the only way to remind myself she's real and mine.
“You’re everything, Emery,” I whisper, stripped bare.“Always have been.”
My eyes drift down to her stomach, to the life we created from the ruins of who we used to be.Pride hits me so hard it almost hurts.
“I never thought I’d deserve something this good,” I admit, voice fraying.“Not with what I’ve done.Not with the blood on my hands.”
She takes my hand and places it over the softest part of her belly.And then… fuck.That flutter.That tiny, perfect movement.
It wrecks me.
“You’re going to be an incredible father, Matteo,” she says, steady and sure while I’m coming undone.“You deserve this.Every part of it.”
I swallow hard.There were days I didn’t think I’d live to see another sunrise, let alone this.
I shift closer and kiss her slow.
“I promise you,” I breathe against her lips, “I’ll tear the fucking world apart before I let anything touch either of you.”
Emery leans in, breath trembling between us.
“I believe you,” she whispers, and I can see she means it.She knows.
We lie in silence, wrapped in a peace we never thought we’d earn.Emery traces slow patterns on my chest, pausing where time left its scars.
“You ever wonder what our daughter will be like?”she asks, voice dipped in fragile hope, the kind that only surfaces when you stop expecting the world to ruin everything.
I glance down, and that same fierce love slams into me all over again.“Like you, I hope,” I say.“Brave.Smart.Strong in the ways that matter.”
She lets out a quiet laugh.“She’ll have your stubborn streak.”
I kiss her temple.“Then God help us both.”
Her laughter tears through the night, splitting the dark the way daylight rips through a storm.
Wild.Free.
She tucks herself into me like this is the only place that’s ever made sense.
“I hope she finds this one day,” she murmurs, her words brushing against my skin.“I hope she has someone who loves her this fiercely.Someone who’d burn the world down just to keep her safe… the way you did for me.”
