His dark eyes searched mine, serious now. "You know, when I first met you, I thought you were hiding something. Turns out, you were hiding everything." His thumb traced my cheekbone. "But even then, I couldn't stay away."
"Even when you found out I was lying about who I was?" I asked, the guilt still fresh despite everything that had happened since.
"Especially then," he said, his voice low. "Because I saw the real you—the woman who would do anything to save her mother. How could I not fall for that kind of loyalty?"
My heart swelled in my chest, and I rose on my tiptoes to press my lips to his. He tasted like champagne and promises, his arms tightening around me as he deepened the kiss.
When we broke apart, I caught Ivy watching us with a smug smile. She raised her glass in a silent toast before turning back to her conversation with Grayson.
"Your friend is never going to let you live this down, is she?" Jackson asked, amusement coloring his voice.
I laughed softly. "Never. She's been telling me to 'tap that' since the first day you walked into the office."
"Smart woman," he murmured against my hair.
I looked back at my sleeping mother, then around at the family I'd never expected to have. "This feels perfect."
"It does." He pulled back, looking me like I was something sacred. “I never thought I’d find a reason to want mornings again, to wake up looking forward to every day,” he said. “But then you showed up.”
My breath caught at the tender words, the truth and sincerity obvious in every note. He wasn’t the kind of man who said things just to say them. Every word was earned, carved from pain and silence.
His eyes searched mine, that smile making me weak, and my heart so incredibly full.
“You make me want to live, Elena,” he said, stroking my cheek. “Not just survive. Live.”
I moved to cup his face, holding his gaze steady. I wanted this. This family, this life. I wanted him. “Then let’s live,” I whispered. “Together.”
He kissed me like a promise—slow, gentle, and full of everything we hadn’t said yet. And for once, I didn’t feel like a girl chasing ghosts. I felt like a woman who’d finally come home.
