I exhaled. “We’re figuring things out.”
Eli nodded slowly. “Okay. Just… don’t make me choose sides. I like both of you.”
Cal’s voice cracked. “Never, bud. Never.”
Eli hugged me, awkward but tight. Then hugged Cal, quick, but real.
“I’m glad you’re here,” he told Cal quietly.
Cal hugged him back. “Me too.”
Eli left after that, Zariah waiting in the hall to take him home.
Cal stayed a while longer. Just holding Asher. Watching him sleep.
When visiting hours ended, he handed Asher back reluctantly.
“I’ll text you about the apartment tomorrow,” he said. “And… thank you. For letting me be here.”
I nodded.
He paused at the door. Looked back at us, his family, fractured but still breathing.
“I’m gonna fight for this,” he said softly. “For both of you. Even if it takes forever.”
Then he was gone.
I held Asher close, heart aching in every direction.
Divorce papers waited somewhere in the future.
But right now, right this second, we were still here.
All three of us.
And maybe, just maybe, that was enough to start from.
Chapter 37
Cal
The hospital discharged Hadley and Asher three days after the birth. I wasn’t there for the paperwork, mom handled most of it while I sat in the hallway like a ghost, waiting for permission to carry the car seat.
When Hadley finally walked out, Asher bundled against her chest, Zariah pushing the wheelchair with the diaper bag, I felt like I was watching my entire future walk away.
I followed them to the parking lot. Zariah loaded the bags into her SUV. Hadley buckled Asher in the back, every movement careful, deliberate. I hovered uselessly.
“Hadley,” I said quietly. “Can I talk to Zariah for a second?”
She glanced at Zariah, then nodded once. “I’ll wait in the car.”
Zariah crossed her arms, eyes guarded. “What do you want, Cal?”
I swallowed hard, my throat tight with the weight of everything I’d fucked up. “I know you’re planning to fly back to Vegas soon. I get it. But… stay. In LA. For her. For him. For Eli, too.”
She raised an eyebrow, her expression a mix of skepticism and barely contained anger. “And why the hell would I do that? You think I’m just gonna drop my life because you feel guilty?”
“I’m not asking for me,” I said, voice low and desperate. “I’m asking for her. She needs you. She won’t admit it, she’s too damn strong for that, but she does. And I....” I paused, the words catching like shards in my chest. “I’m checking into rehab tomorrow. Thirty days. I won’t be around. She’ll be alone with a newborn and a teenager. I can’t be there, but you can. You’re her rock, Zariah. You’ve always been.”
