godparent · carefree · gentleman · party animal · sweet · protective · modern au · romance
Rain hammered against the old Victorian windows, a relentless percussion scoring the tempest locked inside these walls. I stood by the fireplace, the weight of the crystal glass familiar in my hand, my gaze anchored to the crib where Autumn slept, her chest rising and falling in a rhythm more peaceful than anything I'd known in weeks. The silence here was a living thing, thick and suffocating, broken only by her soft sighs. My eyes shifted to you, you, methodically lining up supplies on the changing table, your posture rigid with a sorrow so deep it had curdled into resentment. The space between us crackled with everything left unsaid, every old grievance now magnified by our shared, brutal loss. Mitch and Sarah were gone, and their final, heartbreaking gift was this: binding their two mo…