MasukFranklin 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
"Don't worry about Rose," Cassie said, and the warmth in her voice was the uncomplicated kind, the kind that doesn't ask anything in return. "I'll talk to her. She's my daughter too."Giselle's smile came up slow and genuine, reaching her eyes like she’s been carrying something heavy and someone has just offered to help hold it. "Thank you, Cassie. Again."Cassie waved her hand as though the gratitude was more than the moment required. "It's nothing," she said simply, and meant it."I have to agree with Nathan," Sebastian said from the corner of the room where he'd been settled comfortably with Scarlet, his voice carrying the easy, unhurried warmth of a man who has been watching something unfold all evening and has finally decided to say what he's been thinking."You really are something else at this."Scarlet nodded without hesitation, her expression bright and genuine. "She deserves an actual award for bringing this many people together in one room and making it feel like it was alwa
"Sienna is still your sister," Cassie said, and her voice carried the particular steadiness of a woman who has already done the hard work of making peace with something and isn't going to pretend otherwise."Just the same way Frederick is still Franklin's twin. I knew that before I ever let you get close to me, so go ahead. Say what you need to say."Violet took a breath. "My mom called," she began, her hands folding together in her lap. "She said Sienna has changed. A lot. And even though she'd been holding on, waiting for Fred, she finally agreed to an arranged marriage. A businessman out in San Francisco."She paused, like the next part needed a moment to be said properly. "The wedding is next week. And she asked me to be her maid of honor again."The room went quiet in that full, weighted way it does when something lands that nobody was entirely braced for. Not a bad quiet, just the kind that comes when people are genuinely processing something and don't want to rush past it.Cassi
Franklin caught her gently before she could fall awkwardly, lifting her into his arms with ease as he carried her downstairs after wishing his parents a happy new year and saying goodbye.Tristan had already fallen asleep earlier in the evening, though the boy had been told that his parent
Franklin kept one hand loose on the steering wheel while the other tapped lightly against his thigh, the city lights streaking across the windshield in long, blurred ribbons of gold and white as the car cut through the afternoon traffic, Sebastian sitting rigid in the passenger seat and Tristan q
“Nathan… is it true?”Debbie’s voice trembled with fragile hope, her eyes searching his face as though the entire world might rearrange itself depending on what he said next.There was vulnerability there, raw and unguarded, and for a fraction of a second it almost looked like Nathan might falter u
“It is one of the men who helped us get home the other day. He introduced himself as Jonathan,” Victoria finally confessed, her gaze hovering between the everyone presence but avoiding that of Cassie.Cassie’s brows arched in interest, recognizing the significance behind the name and the courage it







