Not even close.
But I know what it means to carry something no one else can fix.
“But you and Olivia don’t make the grief worse,” he says. “You make the love bigger.”
My chest aches.
“I don’t want to hurt you just by being here.”
“You don’t.”
“But I could.” My voice drops. “Maverick, my fear is that I’ll become some kind of replacement.”
His arms tighten around me.
I force myself to keep going, even though every word feels like it scrapes on the way out.
“I don’t want to take her place. I don’t want to sleep in her shadow. I don’t want Livy to become the daughter you lost because losing Elena broke something in you.”
His face stills.
“I don’t want you to love us simply because there are holes shaped like us that need filled.”
“Baby.”
“No, I need to say it.” Tears burn my eyes again. “I know you loved them. I would never ask you not to. I would never want you to stop carrying them. But I can’t be your second chance at Adriana’s life. Livy can’t be your second chance at Elena.”
Maverick cups my face.
“You’re not a replacement,” he says.
I try to look away, but he won’t let me.
“Listen to me, Amelia. Adriana was my wife. Elena was my daughter. They were mine, and I was theirs. Nothing takes that from them. Not death. Not time. Not you.”
My breath catches.
“But you,” he says softly, “are not a ghost wearing her face.”
A sob trembles in my chest.
“You are loud when you are nervous. Stubborn when you are afraid. Soft with every wounded creature except yourself. You carry cold in your hands and fire in your heart. You are Amelia Moore. No one else.”
My tears spill.
“And Olivia?” he continues. “She is not Elena. She is fierce. Nosy. Dramatic. Too smart for peace. She walks into my home and renames my brother before breakfast. Then takes claim to my empire.”
A broken laugh slips out of me.
“Elena was gentle,” he says, voice roughening. “Quieter. She would hide behind my leg before she warmed to anyone. She loved music and tiny glass animals and the color yellow.”
His eyes shine.
“I love Elena for who she was. I love Olivia for who she is.”
My heart twists.
“And I love you,” he says, the words low and steady, “because you made me want a future I had stopped believing could exist.”
