Chapter 16
Miles and Ivy turned one.
Two highchairs.
Two cakes.
Two completely different reactions.
Miles hated frosting.
Ivy buried both hands in it immediately.
Evan laughed so hard he nearly dropped the camera.
Callie attended.
Nolan too, because he had become strangely important to me after the hospital.
Doreen did not.
Her choice had never changed enough.
Sebastian definitely did not.
His choice was still power or resentment.
He chose resentment.
Fine.
The Vale captains came later for an adult dinner.
Not the children’s party.
I kept those worlds separate on purpose.
One old capo looked at Miles and said:
“There’s the future boss.”
I stared at him.
He realized.
“Sorry.”
Good.
Quick learning.
I looked toward my son.
He was chewing the ear of the stuffed rabbit Callie gave him months ago.
Future boss.
Maybe.
Future musician.
Teacher.
Mechanic.
Idiot teenager.
Happy man with no interest in Vale territory.
All possible.
I had once said:
You have no idea whose blood they carry.
At the time, it was a threat.
Useful.
Powerful.
Also dangerous.
Because blood had been Sebastian’s argument too.
Doreen’s.
Every adult trying to claim the babies had a story about what their blood required.
Hale blood.
Vale blood.
Male blood.
Family blood.
I looked at Ivy.
She had my eyes.
Miles had Evan’s mouth.
None of that gave us permission to write their lives.
Evan came beside me.
“You’re thinking too hard.”
“Probably.”
He touched my hand.
We wore our wedding rings again.
Not because everything was fixed.
Because we chose to remain married while rebuilding what secrecy and silence damaged.
Different.
He looked at the twins.
“What are you thinking?”
I smiled faintly.
“That blood is overrated.”
He laughed.
“Don’t say that near your council.”
May you like
“I might.”
Probably should.
