He tilted his chin proudly. “I just want everything to be perfect.”
I knelt, drawing him into a quick hug anyway, and kissed his forehead. “Thank you, my love.”
When I looked up, my gaze met Kieran’s over Daniel’s head.
Thank you,’ I mouthed.
He shrugged, but his eyes softened. “I didn’t buy the dress.”
My smile softened. “Not for the dress.”
The gown fit like it had been made for me. The bodice hugged enough to accentuate without restraining or aggravating my bruised ribs. The skirt fell in liquid folds, brushing the floor and parting at my thigh in a modest slit that hinted rather than revealed.
When I looked in the mirror, I almost didn’t recognize myself.
The woman staring back wasn’t the same Sera who had walked into the Trials. She wasn’t the trembling girl who had loved and lost and broken herself trying to be enough.
She looked…transformed.
Like she’d walked through fire and came out radiant.
An excited knock pulled me away from my introspective moment, and when I opened the door, I gasped.
“Oh, look at you!”
Daniel beamed, adjusting the gold accent cuffs on his black blazer.
“Mom!” His eyes widened. “You look amazing!”
“Thanks to you, my love.”
“Do you like it? he asked, as he gestured to his cufflinks and matching gold bowtie.
I laughed. “I love it, hon.”
He held out his arm for me, all formal and adorable. “Shall we?”
I reached back in and grabbed my clutch before leaning down to slip my arm through his. “We shall.”
It was a little awkward walking down the stairs due to our height difference and my heels, but I cherished every step.
“Dad!” Daniel called out. “Come see!”
My breath caught when Kieran stepped into sight.
He had on the same black suit and black shirt he’d been wearing carlier, but the tie was a new addition. Black, threaded with thin gold stripes that shimmered just like the trim of my dress and Daniel’s bowtie.
Our son waved his hand around with a flourish, grinning mischievously. “Ta-da! We match!”
Kieran rubbed the back of his neck, smiling awkwardly. “It was his idea.”
My answering chuckle was just as awkward. “Yeah, I figured.”
I didn’t want to examine too deeply what that meant. Was Daniel’s heart still set on us being a family? Did he want us back together so desperately that he’d orchestrated this?
“You look… Kieran’s words tapered off, like he couldn’t find the proper adjective. “Phenomenal,” he settled on an exhale.
I didn’t fight the smile that pulled on my lips at the compliment, and I noted with a twinge of pride that my heart didn’t ache.
In another life, when I’d been a different Sera, that comment would have carried me high into the clouds.
This-this picture we painted was what I wanted all those years of distance and indifference.
A father, a mother, and their son standing in the glow of the foyer light, like a true family.
Not the word, not the performance of it-but the warmth of belonging, of being seen and held and known.
But I was not that Sera anymore, and the chance to be that kind of family was long gone.
I hated more than anything to disappoint Daniel, but matching outfits was not a magical glue that would fix the shattered pieces of a marriage that had never really been whole to begin with.
But for my son, for the only thing that mattered to me, I would raise my chin high and play whatever part he wanted me to. If only for tonight.
And if, as we stepped out into the cool night, a quiet warmth-the illusion of something whole-settled in my chest, I let it linger.
Just for tonight.
KIERAN’S POV
I couldn’t quite name the feeling that tightened in my chest as I watched Sera descend the stairs, Daniel’s small hand looped confidently through hers.
The soft gleam of gold along her dress caught the stair light, rippling like flame against the black fabric.
It was a quiet, devastating picture-one of ease, of grace, of a beauty I’d never let myself appreciate.
Moments like this could have happened a hundred times over during our marriage, and yet they never had.
I’d chosen silence over laughter, distance over warmth, control over connection. I’d told myself it was duty that bound us, not affection.
That loving her wasn’t necessary to keep the peace. That indifference was safer.
But watching her now, radiant in the glow of our son’s joy and her victory, I felt the weight of every missed moment. Every meal eaten apart. Every one-sided conversation I’d cut short. Every intimate moment let grow cold.
In another life, maybe this would’ve been our normal. Her smile wouldn’t have carried that soft wariness. Daniel’s laughter wouldn’t sound like a fragile miracle. We wouldn’t be standing in the house she bought to get away from me.
As we drove toward the venue, Daniel filled the car with unbroken chatter, his voice bright with the kind of excitement that made me wonder what separate infinite power pack he ran on.
Sera listened with rapt attentiveness, her head constantly tilted towards the back seat, her lips curved in a smile that begged me to park the car so I could stop and stare.
She asked him questions, laughed softly at his stories, and I found myself joining in once or twice before realizing I didn’t know when I’d last heard us sound like this-like a family.
No-1 remembered. On the island, when it had been just us, another fleeting moment that was already a fading memory, out of my grasp.
As our laughter bounced off each other, tangling into a beautiful symphony, I could imagine, for a brief, painful second, that this was how things might have been if I hadn’t pushed her away.
The thought twisted in my chest.
What would have changed if I’d met her halfway instead of standing behind my walls of arrogance and anger?
If I’d let myself see her-not the idea of her, not the guilt and obligation she represented-but the real woman who’d stood by my side, beautiful and bruised and brave and far too patient with me?
My hands tightened on the steering wheel. All too familiar regret sat like a stone behind my ribs, heavy and immovable.
There was no undoing the past, no reclaiming the years I’d wasted acting like I didn’t care.
And yet, sitting beside her now, hearing Daniel’s laughter fill the car like light, I couldn’t help but wish I’d tried harder.
That Id fought for this-whatever this was-before I had so recklessly let it go.
Before I could follow the thought to its end, the venue lights came into view, spilling golden across the pavement.
Music drifted through the night, blending with laughter and the clinking of glasses. I slowed the car, the illusion breaking piece by piece.
And then I saw him, and it shattered altogether.
Waiting casually by the entrance, one hand in his pocket in a sharp, bespoke navy suit, stood Lucian Reed.
My stomach tightened. The fleeting warmth of the drive dissipated, whatever fragile fantasy had existed was gone, and all that remained was the sharp, brutal truth: we were no longer a family.
And it was all my fault.
LUCIAN’S POV
The moment Sera stepped out of Kieran’s car, the world seemed to narrow around her.
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