Chapter 0488
Chapter 0488
Hannah
It took some time to get Melody to bed that night, what with all the sugar and excitement of the overwhelming day. Noah and I had to take turns pacing back and forth across the nursery, bouncing her and cooing to her until she finally gave up and let her eyes flutter closed.
By the time she was finally fast asleep in her crib, wrapped up in her blanket, it was nearly midnight. But I wasn’t tired at all, and one glance at Noah told me that he wasn’t, either.
We lingered in the nursery doorway for a long moment, just watching of
daughter sleep soundly.
One year. It was quite the accomplishment, considering everything that we had been through. Both Noah and I couldn’t bear to let the day end–we wanted to stay up just a little while longer, just to enjoy it.
Finally, we made our way back downstairs, where the party had long since been cleared away and the guests had gone home. The air still smelled faintly of cake and birthday candles, and a few rogue scraps
of confetti and wrapping paper were scatterersthe hardwood floors.
“Nightcap?” I asked with a tiny grin as we reached the living room, gesturing to the bar at the far end of the room.
He nodded, his gaze following me as I mixed
tonics with lime slices–and filled two glass Omething up behind the bar–just a couple of gin and
I handed him one, and wo
the blanket over us as the fire crackled softly in the fireplace.
settled onto the couch, pulling
We picked out a movie to watch, settling on something funny and mindless. It played on the TV in the background, but neither of us were really paying it any mind. Instead, we sat close to one another beneath the blanket, quietly sipping our drinks and enjoying one another’s company.
For a while, we just sat in comfortable silence. Noah traced his fingers back and forth across my shoulder, and my head rested against his chest as we watched the orange flames dancing in the fireplace.
After a moment, he glanced down at me. “I saw your vision earlier. At the shrine. Saw it through our Mindlink.”
I nodded, a sudden lump forming in my throat at the reminder. “She looked so beautiful,” I murmured. ” And so strong.”
Noah’s gaze softened. “I always thought she would be destined for something great, but seeing it that clearly… Now there’s no denying it.”
There was a pause as I considered his words, chewing on the inside of my cheek. Finally, I sat up and turned to him. “I don’t want her to feel pressured, just so we’re clear. I don’t want her to feel like she has to live up to that… vision we had.”
“I know.” He exhaled, a thoughtful look crossing his face for a few moments. “We both know what it’s like to have parents who wanted something else from us. Who had their own ideas of who we should be in life.”
Another silence settled between us then as we both thought back on our pasts. My father’s well–meaning but ultimately poorly planned decisions, Noah’s father’s cold expectations.
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Chapter 0488
When we’d told Drake during our interview that we intended to make our daughter–and any other children we may have–the master of her own fate, we both meant it.
“Your father,” I whispered. “The way he treated you… it left marks, Noah. The schemes, the manipulation… he was always trying to shape you into something, something that only he understood.”
Noah’s jaw tightened, his gaze dropping to his glass. “To him, I was just a piece in his plan. A tool he could mold and use.” He shook his head. “I’ll never understand why he did what he did. Or how he could justify it. And I’ll be damned if I ever, ever, did the same thing to Melody.”
I reached out, my fingers brushing against his cheek. I tilted his face back to meet mine. “You don’t need to worry about that. You’re not your father. Melody will never suffer the same way you did.”
