PAIGE felt like she was dying. Ana hadn’t slept the whole night. She couldn’t really blame her. She was in her little bassinet, rather than her crib, and crammed back into Paige’s old room, in her old apartment. As a result, Paige hadn’t slept, either.

She’d thought coming back to her little apartment would give her some clarity. Make her feel more…more like Dante and everything else had never happened. But it hadn’t helped. She was too different. Too changed from her time with him. There was no way to even pretend it hadn’t happened.

Now she was sitting at her desk, after having weathered a sea of congratulations from the other employees on her way into the office, feeling like death and having just spent the night away from her new husband, who was probably never going to speak to her again.

She would have to go back to Dante’s house, she knew that. But one night couldn’t have hurt. No one would find out. It would hardly compromise the adoption. And she needed space. Needed to not be sharing the same air as Dante.

She knew that he’d lashed out because she’d challenged him. Because he was frightened. She knew it down in her soul. But just because she was right, didn’t mean he would change his mind. Didn’t mean he would decide to change a lifetime of thinking and feeling a certain way. Didn’t mean he even wanted to.

Maybe she was wrong about him loving her—that could be true. He loved Ana, though. She could see that. And she knew, given the chance, that he would be an amazing father. The kind of man who offered support and love to his children.

She’d known it the moment she’d seen him there, singing Ana his lullaby. She knew that had cost him, and that Ana’s needs had transcended his grief. She’d known in that moment that he was a man capable of great love. And that he’d let fear cripple him.

Stupid man. Stupid, fantastic, lovely man.

“Mrs. Romani?”

It took Paige a moment to realize she was being addressed, even though she was in her office. She looked up and saw a young man standing at the door, a newspaper in his hand.

“Yes?”

“I’m supposed to deliver this to you.” He came in and set the paper on her desk.

“Oh…” She looked down at her desk, frowning. “Oh…I…thank you…” She looked up and the man was gone.

She picked up the paper and started to turn each page, looking for…she didn’t know what. Had someone wanted her to see pictures of the wedding? She flipped to the style section, and the headline stopped her cold.

She put her hand over her mouth, a sob climbing her throat. She picked up the paper, gathered it close to her chest, stood and ran out of her office.

* * *

“Explain this,” Paige said, throwing the newspaper onto Dante’s desk, a tear rolling down her cheek. She was shaking. Everywhere.

Dante looked up at her, his eyes haunted, the veil well and truly dropped. There was no armor covering up his emotions, nothing protecting him. He was as bare and vulnerable as she was.

“I told the truth,” he said, his voice rough. “For the first time in so long, I told the truth.”

She read the headline out loud. “Recently Wed Dante Romani Proclaims: I Love My Wife.”

“It’s true,” he said.

Another tear slid down her cheek and she looked down at the paper, reading out loud.

She looked back up at him. “This is a fluff piece,” she said, sniffling. “No hard-hitting journalism, just a page of you talking about h-how much you love me, and your parents. And Ana.”

“I admit that maybe doing it in a public forum wasn’t the best thing but…all things considered…”

“Turnabout’s fair play.”

“Yes,” he said. “Yes, it is. But this doesn’t replace what I need to say to you now. I love you.”

Paige’s heart expanded in her chest, more tears falling. “Dante, you’re ruining my makeup.”

“And you completely destroyed the way I saw myself, and life, so I’d say it’s a fair trade.” He stood and walked around his desk, his eyes intent on hers. “You were right, Paige. I lied to myself. Because I was afraid. Of everything. Part of me was locked up tight, and I never intended on letting it out. Not ever. But you’ve shown me, consistently, that the reward for bravery is worth the risk. You’ve been so brave, so much braver than I. You took a risk to protect Ana…You took a risk in confessing your love to me. You put yourself out there time and again and opened yourself up to rejection when you didn’t have to do that. And I was too cowardly to do the same.”

Paige tried to swallow past the lump in her throat. “We’ve had different life experiences, Dante. I can’t even imagine what you went through. What that does to someone.”

“It changes you,” he said, his eyes filled with pain. “There’s no way around that. But what you said…it’s very true. And I can’t let my fear of a man so far in my past be more important than the woman here in my present, and my future. You were right. People do love me, and I have been afraid to accept it. To look for it. To see it. Because I didn’t want pain or grief to touch me ever again. And because of that, I’ve been living a cold life. I thought that by keeping everything well-ordered around me, that by accumulating more things, more success, I would somehow change from who I was into who I needed to be. But none of it mattered. None of it was real. None of it changed me. It just let me hide. From myself. From everyone. Everyone except you. You dragged me into the light. And I’ve learned something, Paige.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Light is stronger. I used to think that the two of them were different sides of the same coin. That with one, always came the other. That way of thinking…it helped me reason out what had happened when I was kid. It helped me find a way to believe that by behaving a certain way, I could control things. And now I’ve realized two things, the first being that I can’t control everything. And the second is that light casts out darkness. When you shine it bright, it fills every corner, and it eradicates anything dark. There is nowhere for it to hide. That’s what you’ve done for me. You shone a light on my soul, and now I’m filled with it. With your love.”

She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him hard on the mouth. “I love you so much.”

“I love you, too, Paige. I am so thankful for everything you are, because it’s everything I needed. You are perfect in every way.”

“Even when I get glitter on you?”

“Even then. Maybe especially then. Because I love that you come with color, and paint, and glitter.”

“And a baby?”

“Most especially a baby. I want to be your husband,” he said, “forever. And I also want to be Ana’s father. Her real father. I never let myself realize just how much this is true, but I have a wonderful example of what a father should be in Don Colson. And I want to be that for Ana. I want to guide her, support her and love her. I’m afraid I’ll mess it up, but I want to try.”

“And if she wants to be an artist slash window dresser like her mother?”

“She’s welcome to it. I’ll build her an art studio.”

“What about if she wants to be a CEO like her father?”

“She could do that, too. She can do anything.”

“I think she can, too,” Paige said, happiness filling her, suffusing her.

“And one of the most important things I hope to teach her, is through example,” he said, his voice getting rough. “I hope to show her what love looks like, every day. By loving her as a father should love a daughter. And I hope to show her the kind of love that should exist between a husband and wife, by loving her mother, every day, as long as we both shall live.”