Her words settled like ash.
I nodded to the wall across from us. It was covered in sticky notes and flyers. Crisis numbers. Shelters. Reminders. A dream we’d built on top of our trauma, like scaffolding.
“Do you think we’ll ever get our happily ever after?” I asked. “Thereal one. Not the sanitized, rom-com bullshit. The one that says, ‘you’re safe now, and it’s not a trick’?”
Remi was quiet again. I watched her eyes trace the rim of her glass.
“I don’t know,” she said. “But I want to believe it’s possible.”
Something shifted in her then. The edges of her mouth tightened. That quiet haunted look that only came when she was holding back something sharp.
“What?” I asked.
She looked at me, then back down. “Jack got an offer,” she said. “A promotion. They want him in the city DA’s office.”
My stomach dipped. “Shit. Are you okay?”
She gave a soft laugh, not the real kind, just a sound that filled the space.
“He was willing to turn it down. Said he’d stay here if I asked.”
“But you didn’t.”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Why?”
Remi took a long breath. “Because I saw my dad in that moment. He was driven too. He always had big ideas about power and legacy. But he stayed with my mom because she got pregnant right out of high school, and everything he wanted became resentment. They poured all their dreams into being important in a town that didn’t care. And they hated each other for it. Hated us.”
She looked at me then. Her voice was steady, but her eyes glistened.
“I don’t want that for Jack. He’s good. He’ll do real good in that role. And if I keep him here just because I’m scared of being alone, I become the weight that drowns him.”
I reached out and touched her wrist. “You’re not that to him.”
“Maybe not. But I’m not his dream either.”
I swallowed hard. “You sure about that?”
She gave me a tired smile. “I think Jack deserves a life where he doesn’t have to choose between who he loves and what he’s meant to do.”
“And you?” I asked. “What do you deserve?”
Her answer came so fast it hurt. “I deserve to keep building thisplace. To make sure what happened to the Sofias, and the Jennys doesn’t happen again.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. So, I just leaned against her. Let our shoulders touch. Let my head rest under hers.
Remi relaxed into me and after a few minutes asked, "Are we going to decorate the apartment this year, or just the clinic?"
I laughed at her change in topic, "I don't know, Rem, are you going to pout if we don't put up your precious twinkle lights?"
I felt a sharp pinch on my side, "I don't pout... but yes, maybe."
I pinched her back and smiled.
Then she said, "And maybe a tiny tree in the corner by the kitchen?"
I snuggled in closer to her. She was my family, and she didn't ask for much. "Deal, twinkle lights and a tiny tree."
