Chapter Five: The Choice

Nick and I stare at each other across the hallway.

“We’ll use Alexander’s bond,” I say before Nick can speak.

Dr. Harrison’s expression shifts to concern. “Ms. Winters, I need to be very clear about the risks—”

“I understand the risks. Alexander will bond with her.”

“Emily—” Nick starts.

“No.” I cut him off. “This is my decision. She’s my daughter and I’m choosing what’s best for her.”

“What’s best for her is the bond with the highest success rate,” Nick’s voice is strained. “Which is mine.”

“What’s best for her is stability,” I counter. “Alexander has been in our lives for a year. You just found out she exists twenty minutes ago. She doesn’t know you. She doesn’t trust you.”

“She doesn’t have to trust me for the bond to work.”

“But she has to live with the consequences of it.” I meet his eyes. “Daily contact for weeks, maybe months. Living under the same roof as you. Being connected to you for the rest of her life. I won’t do that to her.”

“You mean you won’t do that to yourself,” Nick says quietly.

The words hit too close to home but I refuse to flinch.

“Dr. Harrison, please schedule the bonding ceremony with Alexander for first thing tomorrow morning,” I say, my voice final.

Dr. Harrison looks between us, clearly uncomfortable. “I’ll make the arrangements. But I want it on record that I strongly advised the biological bond.”

“Noted,” I say.

She leaves.

The silence in the hallway is suffocating. I can feel Nick’s eyes on me but I refuse to look at him. If I look at him, I might waver. And I can’t afford to waver.

“If his bond fails—” Nick starts.

“It won’t.”

“But if it does, Emily, please—” His voice cracks slightly and despite myself, I look at him.

He looks wrecked. His hair is disheveled from running his hands through it, his tuxedo is still stained with Mia’s blood, and there’s something raw in his eyes that I haven’t seen since that night in the cabin six years ago.

“I know I don’t deserve anything from you,” he says quietly. “I know I destroyed us. I know I should have believed you, should have listened, should have trusted you. And I’ve spent six years regretting it. Six years wishing I could take it back.”

My chest tightens. I don’t want to hear this. Don’t want to feel the way his words are pulling at something inside me that I thought I’d buried.

“I can’t change what I did,” Nick continues, and his voice is rough with emotion. “But I can be here now. I can try to make it right. I want to be her father, Emily. I want to know her. I want to be there for her the way I should have been from the beginning.”

  

I can’t trust you,” I whisper, and the admission costs me more than I want it to. “I can’t trust that you won’t leave. That you won’t decide she’s too difficult or too complicated or not worth the effort. That you won’t break her heart the way you broke mine.”

“I won’t—”

“You don’t know that.” My voice gets stronger. “You can’t promise me that. You thought you loved me six years ago and look how that turned out.”

He flinches like I slapped him. “That was different. I thought you betrayed me—”

“And you didn’t give me five minutes to explain. You saw what you wanted to see and you destroyed me without a second thought.” I wrap my arms around myself. “What happens when Mia does something you don’t understand? When she makes a mistake? Will you give her a chance to explain or will you just… turn off?”

“I wouldn’t, Emily. Not giving you a chance is the biggest mistake I made in my life and everyday, I wished I could take it back.”

The mate bond pulls hard at his words, and I have to physically force myself not to step toward him.

“You don’t know anything about being her father,” I say, but my voice wavers.

“Then let me learn.” He takes a careful step closer. “Let me be there. Let me prove to you that I can do this, that I want to do this. She’s my daughter and I just found out she exists and she’s dying and I can save her. Please don’t take that away from me. I want to be there for her the way I am for my son.”

Everything stops.

“Your… what?”

“My son. Mason. He’s five.”

The math hits me like a physical blow. Five years old. Jessica was pregnant within months of destroying me.

“You have a son,” I say flatly.

“Yes. And I’m a good father to him—I’m there for every school event, every bedtime. I could be that for Mia too.”

The words twist something in my chest.

“You’ve had five years with him,” I say. “Mia’s six and you just found out she exists.”

“Because you didn’t tell me—”

“Because you didn’t give me a chance!” My voice rises. “You married Jessica, had a baby with her, built a whole life. And now you want to play father to Mia the way you do with your son?”

“I want to try—”

“Mason has had you his whole life. Mia has had nothing. That’s not my fault, Nick. That’s yours.”

His jaw tightens. “I know I missed six years. But I can be here now—”

“Being a good father to one child doesn’t automatically make you a good father to another. You don’t know Mia. She doesn’t know you.”

“Then let me change that—”

“No.” The word comes out firm. “Go home to your son. Be the father to him that you can’t be to Mia.”

““Emily, I was wrong—”

“Yes. You were.” I force myself to look him in the eye. “And I can’t risk you being wrong again. Not with her. Not with my daughter.”

“Our daughter,” he says quietly.

“No.” The word comes out firm. “Mine. I’m the one who’s been there. I’m the one who gets to decide.”

“And you’re deciding to use a bond that’s twenty-four percent more likely to fail?” His voice rises slightly. “You’re willing to risk her life to keep me away from her?”

“I’m willing to risk a slightly lower success rate to protect her from someone who’s already proven he can’t be trusted.”

The words hang between us, brutal and final.

Nick stares at me for a long moment and I watch something shift in his expression. The desperation fades, replaced by something that looks almost like resignation.

“At least let me know if she’s okay,” he says finally, his voice flat. “After the ceremony. Just… just tell me she made it through.”

I should say no. Should cut him off completely.

But the look on his face, the genuine fear for Mia, the defeated slump of his shoulders, makes me hesitate.

“Fine,” I hear myself say. “One text. After the ceremony. To let you know she’s stable.”

“Thank you.” The relief in his voice is palpable. “And Emily… I meant what I said. About regretting everything. About wishing I could go back and—”

“Don’t.” I can’t hear this right now. Can’t process it. “Just… go home, Nick.”

He hesitates for one more second, like he’s going to say something else. Then he turns and walks toward the elevator.

I watch him go and something in my chest aches.

The mate bond is screaming at me that I just made a mistake. That I should call him back. That Mia deserves her biological father.

But I can’t risk it. Can’t risk him breaking her heart. Can’t risk letting him close enough to destroy us again.

The elevator doors close and he’s gone.

Alexander appears beside me, his hand warm on my shoulder. “You okay?”

“No,” I admit, my voice shakier than I want it to be. “But I will be once Mia is safe.”

“I’ll save her,” he says quietly. “I promise.”

I lean into him for just a second, letting myself take comfort from his steady presence. He’s good and kind and here. Everything Nick wasn’t.

Everything Nick can never be for me again.

Tomorrow, Alexander will bond with Mia.

Tomorrow, she’ll be safe.

And whatever I’m feeling right now, this ache in my chest, this pull toward Nick, this tiny voice saying I just made a mistake, I’ll bury it.

And Nick can go home to the child he actually raised.

The one that didn’t include us.