Mag-log inI lean into him. "We really did start with a contract.""We did.""And now we have this.""Yeah. Now we have this."Maya cries out upstairs. Not scared. Just a dream. We both listen, waiting to see if she'll settle. She does. Back to sleep in seconds."I love you," Aiden says."I love you too.""I m
Taylor's POVThree years after the contract. Two years after the wedding. Eighteen months after Maya was born.It's a Tuesday night in October. Nothing special. Just a regular evening in the life we built.I'm in the kitchen making dinner. Maya is on the floor with her blocks, building something tha
The woman closed her notebook. "That's beautiful.""It's not beautiful. It's work. Really hard work. We still fight. We still build walls sometimes. We still have moments where we want to run because running is easier than staying. But we don't run. We stay. And we figure it out. That's the whole jo
Taylor's POVWe were at a foundation event two years after Maya was born when someone asked the question."How did you two make it work?" The woman was young, sharp-eyed, holding a notebook. A journalist, probably. Or a grad student writing a thesis. "You started with so much against you. The family
"Did it?" Kiera asked."No. We fell in love anyway. Threw out the contract after three months. Got married. Had her." He gestured to the baby monitor. "And now we're here.""That's the most romantic thing I've ever heard," Kiera said."It's not romantic. It's messy. We spent a year knocking down wal
Taylor's POVMaya's first birthday fell on a Saturday in October, eighteen months after the contract, fourteen months after the wedding, one year after she'd arrived and changed everything.We threw a party. Small. Just the people who'd earned their way to the table.My father arrived early, carryin
the drink sits untouched in my hand the condensation dripping down the sides and leaving thin rings of water on my fingers.i watch one slide all the way down the glass before it falls onto my knee.The penthouse is quiet.Too quiet.the only sound is the low hum of the refrigerator — steady almost r
Aiden’s POVPractice feels different the next morning lighter somehow like someone finally cracked a window open in a room thatsbeen suffocating for weeks.the court rings with echoes of sneakers and chatter the kind of easy noise i havent heard in a long time.even the guys seem different today loos
Taylor’s POVThe truth hides in quiet corners and I have learned how to listen for it.The cafe is small barely six tables pressed between a dusty antique bookstore and a nail salon that smells faintly of acetone.inside the air hums with the low murmur of espresso machines and the bittersweet scent
i dont reach for her.dont push.her fingers move on their own anyway curling tighter around the edge of my jacket like shes pulling it and maybe me with her.The silence shifts then.Not brittle like before.Not tense.Just… full.like its waiting for something neither of us knows how to give voice to







