Page 116 of Marked By the Devil

I was just me.

Soon, it would be me with our baby.

“Let’s elope,” I stated.

He kissed me slowly and sighed against my lips. “Let’s elope,” he confirmed.

While he held me with his strong arms locked around me, I thought back to how different my life would be if not for that one fateful night.

“Can you imagine where we’d be if you hadn’t been lucky enough to catch me that night?”

He took my hand and led me out of the room. “I am lucky. Lucky to have you, Red.”

I exited the room with him, excited to go home to our house, to plan our elopement. On the way out, I couldn’t help but muse that if he hadn’t been there to follow me through that alley, I would have missed out on meeting him.

I would have missed out on falling in love with him.

I would have missed out on getting to know all the Volkovs.

I would have definitely missed out on having a chance to have this baby inside me.

And I definitely would have missed out on finding that purpose to do good, even with the bad.

Most of all, though, I wouldn’t have found this soul-deep love and connection that I would treasure and strengthen with the man I would call my husband, and missing out on that would’ve been the greatest tragedy of all.