“You make me treasure it,” he said. “Something I never imagined possible. You told me once that you found a passion for breathing when breathing was all you had. That your desire for revenge was a passion that kept you going. That’s what it felt like when you left. I breathed for you. For the one thing that mattered. And then I knew. That this was love. That it was worth anything to claim. That you were worth anything. That I would have to give you the choice to leave even though I wanted you to stay. That I would have to expose myself even though I feared what was inside me. Every wall inside me is broken down, for you. I would rather stand here with you, exposed and vulnerable, than spend the rest of my life protected without you.”
“Oh, Ferran…I’m so glad I chose you instead of prison.”
He laughed and her heart lifted. “I’m glad, too. It’s nice to be preferable to a dungeon.”
“You smiled,” she said.
“So did you,” he said.
“You give me so many reasons to smile.”
“And I promise to continue to, every day.”
EPILOGUE
THERE WAS SOMETHING incredible about the fact that he and Samarah had created a life together. After so much loss, so much pain, they had brought something new into the world.
Ferran looked down at his son, cradled in his mother’s arms, and he felt his heart expand. He reached down, running his fingers along Samarah’s flushed cheek. “I will never take for granted that I have you here,” he said. “Because I remember a moment when I thought I was touching you for the last time.”
She looked up at him and smiled. “You have a lot of years of touching ahead of you,” she said.
“And thank God for it. I would like to hold my son,” he said, his throat tightening as he looked at the baby in her arms.
“Of course.”
He bent down and took the swaddled bundle from her. He was so tiny, so fragile. And she was trusting him with him. Just as she trusted herself to him, and had done for the past year. “He is perfect,” Ferran said.
“I know,” she said, smiling.
“Who would have thought your revenge would end this way?” he asked. “The creation of a life, instead of the end of one.”
“Two lives,” she said, smiling. “I feel like my life became so much more that day. It became life instead of survival.”
“Three then,” he said, running his finger over his son’s cheek. “Because I was frozen in time until you came back to me. And now…now my life has truly begun.”