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Another tear slipped down his cheek. He gave the smallest shake of his head. His fingers intertwined with mine.

“I don’t know how to move forward,” I breathed.

“Me either,” he admitted. “But maybe we don’t have to figure it out alone any more.”

My artistic brain dissected the sight of him. For the first time in months, my fingers twitched, with a phantom instinct to grab a charcoal stick and sketch the sheer tragedy of his silhouette.

When my gaze finally climbed to meet his, the familiar shade of Baltic amber nearly broke me. The light caught them just right, turning them into something honey-warm. I knew every gold-leaf fleck in those irises by heart, for I had drowned in them a thousand times over.

Seeing him broken and torn was like looking into a gallery of everything we had lost. An unfinished portrait of grief. Every familiar line of his face was gutted by the months we’d spent apart.

The ghosts of our twin girls stared back at me through the amber glass of his tears. My heart clenched in my chest. I wanted nothing more than for his words to be true. Maybe just maybe…

“Do you really think that’s possible?” I asked.

“All we can do is try. It sure as hell beats the alternative. Clearly, I got it wrong before. But if you’ll give me one more chance, I’ll spend the rest of my life getting it right. I told you before, I’m all in. Please, let me prove it.”

“I’m scared. Scared of facing the pain. Scared you’ll wake up one day and hate me.”

He almost looked offended.

“I could never hate you. Never. Truth is, I’m scared of the exact same thing.”

Then he pulled back, like something randomly occurred to him. My brow furrowed.

“I may have been planning on going to America, but I was taking you and the girls with me. It was the only way I could guarantee it, but maybe this will be a small show of what you…and the girls mean to me.”

Without a word, he turned around. My breath caught. Theo’s work covered nearly the entirety of his back. Every line. Every shadow. Every strand of hair. It was me. But not the broken version standing in front of him.

No, it was the woman he’d fallen in love with. Down to the nose ring. The fact that he added that detail made my heart sing. My fingertips drifted upward almost on their own, tracing the edge of the artwork with reverence.

The craftsmanship stole my breath. I traced the side of one of the pieces of my hair up, up, up and froze. Beneath his left ear was another tattoo. The edge of it started right beneath where his earlobe stopped and curving up.

A heartbeat line rising and falling. One beat flowed into another, the line extending until it stopped. It immediately flowed into two of the tiniest footprints I’d ever seen. The line disappeared into his hairline.

My trembling fingers crossed to the other side. There sat an identical tattoo. Perfectly matched. Two tiny heartbeats. Four tiny footprints. Our girls. He’d carried them with him all this time.

A sob escaped before I could stop it. In that moment, with my fingers on either side of his head, I realized how foolish I’d been. I stepped around until I was standing in front of him again. My fingers found his face.

“Can I kiss you?”

He leaned down and captured my lips in his. My heart caught. It had been so long.

“Fuck,” he murmured.

The kiss was nothing like the desperate ones we’d shared before. This one was slow and gentle. Reverent in a way, like he was afraid I’d disappear any second. His arms circled my waist, drawing me against him.

I melted into the warmth. My fingers found his hair, threading through the familiar strands before settling behind his ears. Home. That was what this was. That was what he was.

We stood holding one another, our tears mingling. For the first time since the hospital, I wasn’t carrying the grief by myself. And that felt good. Things could get better. With time, and as long as he was by my side.

“I love you, Lev,” I cried.

His eyes closed for a moment. Relief washed across his face so openly that it stole my breath. His thumb brushed once more against my bottom lip.

“Then, no more running. For either of us.”

The moment was interrupted by a small, angelic voice filled with curiosity.