Chapter 8
The first six months in our new house were perfect.
We fell into a rhythm.
I went to work at my new job, a promotion that let me work from home three days a week so I could be there for Leo after school.
Jake worked his shifts at the fire station, coming home every morning with coffee and donuts for Leo.
We had dinner together every night, no exceptions.
Weekends were for hiking, trips to the zoo, Lego marathons on the living room floor.
Leo’s night terrors were gone completely.
He was happy.
Confident.
Safe.
Jake asked me to be his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day.
He took us to a small pizza place in town, Leo sitting between us, covered in pepperoni.
After dinner, he pulled me aside by the jukebox, his hands a little shaky.
“I know we’ve been through a lot,” he said.
“I know you’ve been hurt. And I would never push you into anything you’re not ready for. But I love you. I love Leo like he’s my own. And I want to do this. All of it. The messy parts and the good parts. Forever. If you’ll have me.”
I kissed him right there, in front of the whole restaurant, while Leo cheered from the booth.
“Yes,” I said.
“A thousand times yes.”
We told Leo that night when we got home.
We sat him down on the couch, Jake holding my hand, and told him we were going to be a family.
Leo’s face lit up so bright it outshone all the lights in the room.
“Does that mean you’re my new daddy?” he asked Jake, bouncing on his knees.
Jake’s eyes filled with tears.
“Only if you want me to be, buddy,” he said.
Leo threw his arms around Jake’s neck, squeezing as tight as he could.
“I want,” he said, his voice muffled in Jake’s shirt.
“I want you to be my daddy forever.”
That night, I lay in bed beside Jake, watching him sleep, his arm thrown loose over my waist.
I thought about how different my life was just a year earlier.
How I’d been married to a monster.
How I’d almost lost my son.
How I’d thought my life was over.
And now?
I had a man who loved me.
A son who was happy and healthy.
A home that felt like a safe place.
I’d been given a second chance.
And I wasn’t going to waste a single second of it.
We had a small party at the house in June to celebrate Leo’s sixth birthday.
All the kids from his class came.
We had a bounce house in the backyard.
A dinosaur-shaped cake.
A piñata shaped like a T-Rex that Jake had spent three nights building.
Lila’s family came too.
Her mom, her dad, her older brother.
They’d become like family to us over the last year.
We saw them every holiday.
Every birthday.
They loved Leo like he was their own grandson.
Said having him in their lives made losing Lila a little easier.
Like a little piece of her was still here, making sure we were all okay.
After all the guests left, we sat on the back porch, watching Leo run around the yard with his new dinosaur toys, the sun setting pink and orange over the trees.
Jake wrapped his arm around me, pulling me into his side.
“Remember that night in the nursery?” he said, soft.
“I thought my life was over. That I’d never get justice for Lila. That I’d carry that guilt forever. And then there you were. And Leo. And suddenly, everything made sense. All the pain. All the waiting. It led me here. To you. To him. To this.”
I leaned my head on his shoulder, watching Leo roar at a butterfly, making it flutter away.
“I used to think the worst night of my life was that party,” I said.
“The night I came home and found Leo. But now? I think it was the night that saved us. Because if it hadn’t happened, I never would have known what Ethan was. I never would have left. I never would have met you. We never would have had this.”
Jake kissed the top of my head.
“Everything happens for a reason,” he said.
“Even the bad stuff. Even the stuff that breaks you. Because it leads you to the good stuff. The stuff that puts you back together again.”
Leo ran over then, climbing onto Jake’s lap, holding up his favorite new T-Rex.
“Daddy,” he said, using the word that still made Jake’s face light up every single time.
“Can we camp in the backyard tonight? Please? I want to look at the stars.”
Jake looked at me, grinning.
“What do you say, Mom?” he asked.
“Should we have a campout?”
I pretended to think about it, tapping my chin.
“I think that sounds perfect,” I said.
We dragged the tent out of the garage an hour later.
Jake set it up in the middle of the yard, Leo “helping” by handing him stakes he kept dropping.
We made s’mores over the fire pit, Leo getting marshmallow all over his face and Jake’s shirt.
We lay in the tent that night, looking up at the stars through the mesh roof, Leo sandwiched between us, fast asleep within 10 minutes, his hand curled tight around Jake’s finger.
I looked at Jake in the dim starlight.
He was already looking at me.
He mouthed “I love you” across Leo’s sleeping body.
I mouthed it back.
For the first time in my life, I felt completely whole.
Completely safe.
May you like
Completely loved.
And I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that nothing bad was ever going to touch us again.
