Page 145 of Beautiful Ruins
“You’re carrying my child,” he said quietly.
“Yes.”
His gaze lifted to mine.
And whatever I had been afraid of disappeared.
Because Raze looked—happy.Deliriously happy.
“Izzy.”
He pulled me into him, his arms closing around me with a force that stole my breath.
“I have spent half my life destroying things,” he murmured into my hair.
I held onto him just as tightly.
“And now,” he said, voice rougher, “I get to build something.”
Something inside my chest loosened.
“You’re not upset?”I asked softly.
He pulled back just enough to look at me.
“Upset?”
“Yes.”
Raze shook his head slowly.
“You just gave me the one thing I never thought I’d have again.”
Emotion hit me all at once.Warmer this time.Steadier.
His hand returned to my stomach, protective without thinking.
“I’m going to be a father.”
“You are.”
A slow smile broke across his face.Honest and unrestrained.
And suddenly the future didn’t feel like something waiting to hurt me.It felt… open.Endless.Ours.
He leaned down and kissed me, softer than I’d ever known him to be.
When he pulled back, his forehead rested against mine.
“Our child.”
Outside, the wind moved through the trees again.
The world felt steady.Whole.
And standing there in the light, in the space he had built for me, in the life we had carved out of everything that tried to break us—I understood something I hadn’t been able to name before.
I hadn’t just survived my past.
