74 Chapter 74
74 Chapter 74
Damien’s POV 1
“Adrian,” Sera called, and our son immediately appeared in the doorway as if he’d been listening the entire time.
“Yes, Mommy?”
“How would you feel about living with Daddy in his house?” she asked, her voice carefully neutral.
Adrian’s face lit up like Christmas morning. “Really? We could really live there? With Daddy?”
“If that’s what you want,” Sera said softly.
“YES!” Adrian shouted,unching himself at both of us and somehow managing to wrap his small arms around us both. “Yes, yes, yes! Can
we go now? Can we see my room?”
The pure joy in his voice was infectious, and I found myself grinning as I ruffled his dark curls.
“We can go look at the house right now if you want,” I told him. “And then we can start packing up your things.”
“Can I bring all my dinosaurs?”
“Every single one of them.”
“What about my Batman nightlight?”
“Especially your Batman nightlight.”
“What about-”
“Adrian,” Sera interrupted with augh, “you can bring everything that’s yours. But first, let’s go see the house and make sure you like it.”
An hourter, we were walking through the front door of my estate, and I tried to see it through their eyes. The marble foyer with its
soaring ceiling and crystal chandelier, the sweeping staircase, the formal living rooms and dining area that I rarely used-it all suddenly
felt enormous and cold.
But Adrian’s reaction was everything I could have hoped for.
“Whoa,” he breathed, his head tilted back to stare at the chandelier. “Daddy, do you live in a castle?”
“Something like that,” I said, scooping him up so he could see better. “What do you think? Is it too big?”
“Nothing’s too big!” Adrian dered with five-year-old certainty. “Can I slide down the banister?”
“Absolutely not,” Sera and I said at exactly the same time, then looked at each other and startedughing.
I gave them the full tour, watching Sera’s face as we moved through the rooms. I could see her calcting spaces, probably mentally rearranging furniture and thinking about how to make the formal spaces more livable. When we reached the master suite, I paused at the doorway.
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“This would be our room,” I said carefully, “but there are several other bedrooms if you’d prefer your own space. I don’t want you to feel
pressured into anything you’re not ready for.”
She gave me a look that was equal parts grateful and exasperated. “Damien, we have a five-year-old son together. I think I can handle.
sharing a bedroom with you.”
Heat shed through me at her words, but before I could respond, Adrian was tugging on my hand.
“Where’s my room, Daddy? I want to see my room!”
The room I showed him had been a guest bedroom, but it wasrge and bright with tall windows that overlooked the gardens. Adrian ran
from corner to corner, his excitement palpable.
“It’s huge!” he announced. “Mommy, look how huge it is! And there’s space for all my dinosaurs and my books and maybe even a race car
track!”
“It’s beautiful, sweetheart,” Sera said softly, and when I looked at her, there were fresh tears in her eyes.
“Happy tears?” I asked, echoing the phrase Adrian had used earlier.
“The happiest,” she confirmed.
It took us three trips to move all of their belongings from the apartment to the house. Ophelia helped, making jokes about how her best
friend was “moving up in the world” while simultaneously making sure that Adrian’s favorite stuffed animal and Sera’s coffee mug made
it safely into the boxes.
By evening, Adrian was installed in his new room, his dinosaurs carefully arranged on the built-in shelves and his Batman nightlight
plugged in beside the bed. He’d eaten dinner at the kitchen ind, eyes wide as he took in the professional-grade appliances and the
pantry that was bigger than his old bedroom.
“This is the best day ever,” he announced as I tucked him into his new bed. “I got a daddy and a castle all in one day.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s the best day ever for me too,” I told him, pressing a kiss to his forehead. “Sleep well, buddy.”
“Daddy?” he said as I reached the door.
“Yeah?”
“Will you still be here when I wake up?”
The question hit me like a physical blow, a reminder of all the mornings he’d woken up without a father, all the times Sera had probably wondered if someone she cared about would still be there in the morning.
“I’ll be here, I promised him, my voice rough with emotion. “Every morning, for as long as you want me.”
“Forever?”
“Forever.”
When I made my way back to the master suite, I found Sera sitting on the edge of the bed, still wearing the clothes she’d put on for work that morning-a morning that felt like a lifetime ago. She looked small in therge room, and for a moment I wondered if I’d pushed too
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hard, moved too fast.
“Hey,” I said softly, sitting beside her on the bed. “How are you doing?”
She was quiet for a moment, then turned to look at me with an expression I couldn’t quite read.
“Ask me tomorrow,” she said finally. “When I wake up in your house, in your bed, with our son down the hall. When this all feels real
instead of like some incredible dream.”
“It’s real,” I assured her, reaching out to tuck a strand of dark hair behind her ear. “We’re real. This family we’re building-it’s real.”
She caught my hand as I started to pull it away, holding it against her cheek as she closed her eyes.
“I love you,” she whispered, the words so soft I almost missed them. “I think I’ve loved you since that night five years ago, even when I
thought I’d never see you again. Even when I hated you for leaving. Even when I didn’t know who you were.”
The words hit me with the force of a tidal wave, washing away thest of my uncertainty and recing it with a fierce, protective joy.
“I love you too,” I said, my voice breaking slightly on the words. “More than I ever thought possible. More than I knew I was capable of.”
When our lips met, it was soft at first, tentative, as if we were both still afraid this might disappear. But then her hands fisted in my shirt
and she pulled me closer, and the kiss deepened into something desperate and needy and full of five years of longing finally being
fulfilled.
“Sera, I breathed against her lips, and her name tasted likeing home.
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