LOGINFranklin typed back immediately. ‘Don't. Seriously. You need to be resting. Both of you.’He sent the same message, in slightly different words, to Scarlet. After everything he had just watched his wife go through, every moment of it still vivid and sitting close to the surface, his respect for pregnant women had expanded in ways he didn't entirely have language for yet.It wasn't that he hadn't respected them before. It was that he understood now, in his body rather than just his head, like watching and reading and being told simply could not have given him.✧༺♥༻✧Hours later, when Cassie woke up and had eaten enough to put some color back in her face and some steadiness back in her hands, the squad arrived.They came in with the particular energy of people who have been somewhere else, somewhere good, and redirected themselves the moment the news landed."We were at Lila's when your message came through," Thelma said, still slightly breathless from moving quickly, her face bright wi
Everything moved quickly after that. She was taken through to the labor ward with Franklin right beside her, his hand finding hers and staying there, his voice low and steady in her ear even when his own heart was clearly hammering away behind his ribs.He said whatever came to him, that she was doing so well, that he was right there, that she was the strongest person he had ever known, and whether or not any of it actually helped, the fact that his voice was there helped, and she held onto it.The gynecologist looked up at one point, her tone matter-of-fact but not unkind. "If you want to come see, you can. Come watch your baby arrive."Franklin moved forward without hesitating, stepping around to where he could see, and the moment the baby's head appeared, that small, perfect, impossible crown of life pressing into the world for the first time, the room tipped sideways.Franklin grabbed the nearest surface.The dizziness that took him was total and immediate, the kind that doesn't n
Cassie's whole face lighted up, and for just a moment she felt the pull of it so strongly, the urge to get up, to get in the car, to go and hold that baby and sit with Lila and be present for it the way she always tried to be for the people she loved.But she felt the weight of herself when she moved, felt it in her back and her hips and the deep, settled heaviness of a body that was carrying two lives and had been doing so for a very long time now.The twins could come any day. Before the due date, or after it. There was no reliable way to know, and Franklin had been clear, in that gentle but completely immovable way of his, that he wanted her close to the hospital.Close enough that there was no scrambling, no last-minute panic, no unnecessary distance between her and the place she needed to be when the time came.She wouldn't have made it anyway. And even if some stubborn part of her had decided to try, Franklin would have stood in the doorway with his arms folded and that look on
Cassie didn't hesitate. She rose from her seat, moved into the aisle, and pulled Sienna into her arms right there in front of everyone, in the middle of all of it, without caring even slightly about the setting or the timing or the hundred pairs of eyes watching the whole thing unfold."Yeah," she said quietly. "It's me."Sienna came apart. Not gracefully, not in the composed and photogenic way people sometimes cried at weddings, but fully and completely, the way you cried when something you had been carrying for a very long time finally set itself down.Her shoulders shook and she held on to Cassie like she was afraid she might disappear."I'm so sorry," she managed between breaths. "I wanted to call you so many times to apologize after my sins caught up to me. So many times, Cassie. But I was scared you wouldn't want to hear from me."Cassie held her for a moment before drawing back just enough to look at her properly. "I forgive you, Sienna. You want to know why?"Sienna pulled bac
Everything moved quickly after that. She was taken through to the labor ward with Franklin right beside her, his hand finding hers and staying there, his voice low and steady in her ear even when his own heart was clearly hammering away behind his ribs.He said whatever came to him, that she was doing so well, that he was right there, that she was the strongest person he had ever known, and whether or not any of it actually helped, the fact that his voice was there helped, and she held onto it.The gynecologist looked up at one point, her tone matter-of-fact but not unkind. "If you want to come see, you can. Come watch your baby arrive."Franklin moved forward without hesitating, stepping around to where he could see, and the moment the baby's head appeared, that small, perfect, impossible crown of life pressing into the world for the first time, the room tipped sideways.Franklin grabbed the nearest surface.The dizziness that took him was total and immediate, the kind that doesn't n
Cassie's whole face lighted up, and for just a moment she felt the pull of it so strongly, the urge to get up, to get in the car, to go and hold that baby and sit with Lila and be present for it the way she always tried to be for the people she loved.But she felt the weight of herself when she moved, felt it in her back and her hips and the deep, settled heaviness of a body that was carrying two lives and had been doing so for a very long time now.The twins could come any day. Before the due date, or after it. There was no reliable way to know, and Franklin had been clear, in that gentle but completely immovable way of his, that he wanted her close to the hospital.Close enough that there was no scrambling, no last-minute panic, no unnecessary distance between her and the place she needed to be when the time came.She wouldn't have made it anyway. And even if some stubborn part of her had decided to try, Franklin would have stood in the doorway with his arms folded and that look on
The faint sound of paper, soft, rhythmic, like pages being turned with care, pulled Cassie from sleep.For a brief, disoriented second, she expected the familiar give of the couch beneath her or the thin pillow she had fallen asleep on. Instead, she felt warmth. Solid warmth, and a steady rise and
“Uncle Frank! Did you buy me more princess dresses?” Rose’s voice rang through the house from upstairs, bright and unrestrained, carrying the innocent excitement only a child could possess.She came racing down the steps a second later, her laughter unguarded, two tiny gaps in her smile where baby
Cassie hadn’t intentionally ignored Patience’s calls but rather, time had simply slipped through her fingers the way it always did when her days became crowded.Still, when her phone rang again, she didn’t let it die out this time. She reached for it immediately. “Pat, I’m so sorry I missed your ca
From the moment they arrived, Tristan’s attention never strayed from Rose.He stood a short distance away, posture relaxed yet alert, watching her with quiet fascination as she animatedly spoke with Franklin.The way she smiled, the tilt of her head, the softness in her expres







