Tears welled in Ann-Sophie’s eyes, and she rested her head on her mother’s shoulder.
“I’m glad the baby is sleeping through this,” she said with a little laugh.
Her mother stroked her hair. “You were so independent, and I didn’t want to smother you, to crush your spirit. But you were at the center of my life, even when you were away.”
Ann-Sophie let the balm of her mother’s words wash over her. Her mother had always been a solace, even from far away, she realized. “I guess I just wish that you could have had both my father and me.”
“I don’t,” said her mother with a sharpness that surprise her.
“What do you mean?”
Her mother looked at her for a moment, then sighed. “When you left for university, your father came back. He praised my work and told me that he had admired the way I had brought you up. Now, he wanted to work together again to see where this took them us. And I had a moment where I considered it. This was what I had hoped for when you were a baby, that he would see how wonderful having a child could be.
“But then I realized that this was actually the opposite of what I had hoped for. I had hoped that he would regret not having you in his life. Having you had changed me so much for the better, and I wanted him to experience this. But he wanted to skip over this entire part of you and me, of what our family had been, and get back to the life he wanted. And that’s his right, but as he said that, I realized it never would’ve worked out between us. The moment we came home from an assignment and tried actual daily living together, our relationship would have fallen apart. So I told him some version of this, probably a lot less calmly and a lot less articulately, and told him to leave. And he did. I have not regretted that for one moment.”
Ann-Sophie wiped a tear that had fallen and smiled, and she wondered how her heart would survive so much joy and sadness.
“Your father would have never even thought to call my mother and arrange to get her there for the wedding,” said her mother quietly. “Your father was not interested in what I needed, let alone what you needed. When I spoke to Alessandro on the phone, his voice was… He was doing this for you. He wanted to make you happy. I know that this is a rough time, but I just hope he finds a way to let that happiness win.”
Her mother kissed the baby’s forehead and stood up, cradling her new grandchild. “Go to sleep, sweetheart. You can rest. I’ll be here when you wake up. I promise.”
Alessandro stood at the threshold of the room. Ann-Sophie’s eyes were closed, and her mother faced her as she swayed gently back and forth. His instincts told him to back away, to leave them in peace, but he resisted. Because he could be a part of this scene if he was willing to work for it. And never in his life had he felt more willing to do anything.
So he stepped into the room, and Ann-Sophie’s mother turned to him. Her movement must have startled the baby because he let out a tiny wail. Ann-Sophie’s mother smiled and offered him the baby.
Alessandro was taken aback. “I don’t know anything about crying babies.”
Margarita laughed. “None of us do in the beginning. We all just have to figure that out the hard way.”
He felt a mess of emotions bubble up, but when she handed him the baby this time, a strange calm fell over him. The mess wasn’t gone, but it felt less…powerful.Because you let yourself be here. The baby was still wailing, so he began to hum songs he remembered, songs that Olivia had hummed to him. The baby’s cries turned to whimpers and, finally, he went back to sleep. Alessandro felt a burst of pride, and he looked up, but Ann-Sophie’s mother wasn’t the only one watching him. Ann-Sophie was awake and watching him with guarded eyes.
“You can just put my things in the corner,” she said quietly and looked away.
“I’m not here to bring you your belongings.”
She turned to him, her eyes a little wider. Then she looked away again. Her mother carefully lifted the baby from Alessandro’s arms.
“Why don’t I spend some alone time with my grandchild,” she said, and before either of them had a chance to protest, she was headed out of the room.
They were alone. Alessandro gazed at Ann-Sophie. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. Her cheeks were rosy from sleep, and her mouth was parted. His mind went straight to all the ways he wanted to kiss her, to hold her, to lie with her and communicate in the best way he knew how. She looked so much like she had in his vision from the dance floor all those months ago, the one that had stopped him cold.
The thought surprised him. He was no longer scared of this vision, but that wasn’t what struck him the hardest. What Alessandro found, now that the fear had left him, waslonging. Though it had been there from that first vision, it had been too foreign to understand—because he had not let himself. Because he never believed he could have it. Now, the force of this longing hit him hard enough to send a tremor through him. He longed to see Ann-Sophie laughing on his bed. He longed to have her at the center of his life. He had longed for these things from the beginning.
Slowly, Alessandro approached the bed. Her lower lip trembled, but she tilted her chin defiantly. Alessandro fought back the frustration with himself, that he had let his parents win and she had suffered because of it. But they weren’t going to win. He would make sure of that.
He sat down on the edge for bed. She had been crying, and he promised himself that he would do everything in his power to right his own wrongs, which started with an apology. “I’m so, so sorry. You told me you loved me and I walked away from that.”
She swallowed, and her lower lip trembled again. “You made that choice right after our son was born.”
“I didn’t want to hurt either of you.” He swiped a hand over his face as another wave of regret swept through him. “I thought I was doing the right thing for all of us.”
“And you alone know what’s best for all three of us?”
He shook his head. “I don’t. Clearly.”
The murmur of voices outside the room floated farther away, leaving them on their own. Together. Ann-Sophie looked so beautiful right now, from her messy hair to her flushed cheeks. Never had he been so sure of anything as he was right now. This was right.Shewas right. If she would have him.
“Why did you come back?” she whispered.
