The answer on my tongue was no, but… what if that was something Alice wanted after all? Her reaction to the proposal hadn’t been a good one, but for someone her age, she might have simply been overwhelmed and unsure what to do with her emotions.


    Instead of assuming I knew everything about my daughter, perhaps it was better to simply ask. “Would you like that?” I asked gently. “Having a daddy?”


    Alice shook her head. “I’ve already picked out my new daddy and it’s not Uncle Roman.”


    I waited for her to continue. She seemed like she had a lot to say from the way she frowned and avoided my gaze. When she didn’t say anything more on her own, I prompted, “Were you scared today?”


    “Yes,” she said.


    “Why?” I asked.


    She returned her gaze to me. “Do you want to marry Uncle Roman?”


    Such a heavy question from such a little girl, and one I’d already been asked this evening several times. By Roman himself, by Julian, and now by Alice.


    For each, my answer was the same. “No.”


    Relief crossed Alice’s face. “Don’t marry him, Mommy…” She yawned, and atst her eyes started to drift closed.


    “Why not?” I couldn’t resist asking.


    As she snuggled in her pillow, she said, “The husband is supposed to make the wife smile…”


    I watched her a moment, as her breathing evened out and sleep pulled her under. As she drifted off into dream world, I wondered why show had given her that idea about marriage, though I supposed it wasn’t a bad thing to learn.


    Someday, I wanted Alice to only marry someone who would make her smile.


    There had been moments with Julian when I had smiled, but… the secrecy and the lies had been too much to bear. And then when Olivia returned…


    I couldn’t go back to Julian. Alice was right, I needed someone who made me smile. As of now, that was neither Roman nor Julian.


    As I contemted this, my own eyelids grew heavy and soon I followed my daughter into sleep.


    As the next morning was the weekend, which means no school for Alice, I decided to make pancakes since we weren’t in a rush. I’d just finished a batch and set Alice up with butter and syrup <b>at </b>the table when someone pressed the doorbell three times in quick session.


    It was the desperate kind of doorbell ringing that usually meant there was some kind of emergency.


    After making sure Alice was set and the burner on the stove was turned off, I hurried to the front door and opened it, unsure what I’d find beyond.


    It was Anna, looking somewhat flustered.


    The moment she saw me, she didn’t even say hello. Instead, the first thing out of her mouth was, What happenedst night?”


    I didn’t even know where to begin. “Roman proposed,” I said. That seemed a good ce to start.


    “Yeah, I know he did!” she said.


    Wait. That confused me. “You… do? How?”


    Anna opened her phone and scrolled to something. As she turned the phone to me, I saw it was a social media post flooded with likes andments. The post was a headline and link to a newspaper article.


    The article was titled, Back from the Dead, Alpha Julian’s Ex to Marry Alpha Roman.


    I grabbed the phone, looking closer. “What is this? said no!”


    !


    “You did?” Anna asked. “That’s not what the article says. There’s a quote in there from Roman himself saying you epted. He says you guys are setting the date.”


    “He… what?” I clicked on the article and scrolled down, trying to read as fast as I could.


    At the same time, my own phone buzzed in my pocket. I checked who was calling.