“Dear Miles and Chelsea,” he read aloud, “I don’t know when the right time will come for me to give you this letter. These are things I’ve wanted to say to the two of you for a long time now. I couldn’t tell you exactly when I knew you had something special, but I certainly know it now, and I feel it’s my duty to tell you exactly what I see when I look at you.”
Chelsea’s eyes welled with tears. “We never told him the truth,” she whispered. “He never knew — he never knew that we had been lying to him. I just feel awful.”
Miles lowered the letter. “It doesn’t matter now,” he murmured, taking her hand. “The lieisthe truth now. I do love you. I do want you to stay with me.”
“I want that too,” she said softly.
“Then it wasn’t a lie,” Miles told her, his voice firm. “It was the truth. We just didn’t know it yet. But… it sounds like Dad did. I would rather he left us knowing that we loved one another than thinking everything between us was false, even if it means he knew before we did.”
She smiled at him. “I think that’s a good way of looking at it,” she said. “Go on. What else does he say?”
Miles returned to the letter in his hand. “Chelsea — I want you to know that you are a rare woman. The way you treat my son is all I could have ever hoped he would find, and I’m so grateful that you’re in his life.”
“What does he mean?” Chelsea asked.
“He liked that you didn’t think of me as a rich man,” Miles explained. “He told me once that you didn’t seem like you were after me for my money, and he appreciated what a rare thing that was.”
“That’s giving me a lot of credit,” Chelsea chuckled. “I got into this with you because I knew you could pay for the fertility treatments I wanted.”
“That’s why you agreed to get into this with me in the first place,” Miles agreed. “But that’s not the answer to everything that happened afterward, is it?” He didn’t need her to answer this question, but he wanted her to see whathesaw, and what Silas had seen. “You don’t need me to be a rich man. If I lost everything tomorrow…”
She nodded. “I would still be here,” she agreed. “Of course I would. Of course I’d stay.”
“That’s what he meant,” Miles said. “He could tell that about you just by meeting you. He knew the kind of woman you are. He knew before I did — I’ll probably always be ashamed of that.”
“You don’t need to be,” Chelsea said with a smile. “It seems like he knew before I did, too. Your dad knew a lot of things.”
“We were lucky to have him for as long as we did,” Miles agreed.
He turned back to the letter — there was more. “And Miles — I’m grateful that you have Chelsea and glad the two of you are on this journey together. You know how I hope it ends. But whatever you decide, whatever you do, know that I’m so grateful for the fact that you’re going to have a family. I’m so glad you’re going to have love in your life. I hope you’ve realized by now that all Iever wanted for you was to experience the joy of fatherhood — the same joy that has made my life so rich and rewarding. I know you think I wanted you to have a child so you could carry on our family legacy, but truly, that’s the least of it. I want your life to be as full as mine has been because I had you. I want you to be a father.”
He had to put the letter down again. He was overwhelmed, too moved to speak.
He had done all this — contracted with Chelsea, arranged to have a baby — because he had believed from the bottom of his heart that his father had wanted nothing more than an heir. Someone to carry on the legacy of the family. But it hadn’t been about that. It hadneverbeen about that.
Over and over, he’d told himself that this was just business. That it was just about providing what his father wanted. It had never been just business.
No wonder his father had grown so attached to Chelsea, allowing her to get close so quickly. No wonder he had given Miles his mother’s ring and encouraged him to propose. Maybe he’d wanted an heir, but what he had really wanted was so much more.
It’s because he loved me.
Miles wouldn’t have been able to fully comprehend his father’s motivations yesterday. But today he was looking down at the face of his son, and it was all as clear as glass.
He loved me. I changed his life. And of course he wanted me to feel it. I’ll want that for our baby someday too.
He reached into his pocket.
The ring was still there, right where it had been since the day his father had given it to him. He had been carrying it around with him all this time, unable to piece together exactly why he had wanted to have it nearby. He had told himself it was because it was his father’s final gift to him — that keeping it close was similar to the way he had kept Bear close after his rediscovery. Now he knew that wasn’t true.
He had been keeping it for this moment, not quite knowing when this moment would come — but understanding that itwould. That they were, and always had been, on a path to this.
Pulling the ring out, he opened the little box. Chelsea registered no signs of surprise. She watched him steadily, the first of the tears starting to spill from her eyes.
He should have said something far more romantic. Instead, he said, “Did you know?”
“No,” she whispered. “But if I’ve learned one thing today, it’s not to assume I know anything. I don’t think anything could surprise me right now.”
“I didn’t know either,” he confessed. “I knew I was coming here to tell you I wanted to be with you, but I had no idea… no idea that today would be the day I would ask you for this.”
