Where Harper is waiting.
Where we belong.
43
TYLER
We drive home with the windows down despite the cool April air, both of us needing to feel something real.
The verdict keeps replaying in my head. Not the win exactly. The shape of it. The conditions. The six months. Ms. Chen's voice on the bench in the hallway, saying most people don't meet it.
Most people don't.
But some do.
I don't say it out loud. I don't have to. Nora's looking out the window, and I know she's running the same loop. We're both relieved and a little bit angry about the way she said in the hallway.
We pull into the driveway at three, and Emma comes running out before we're even out of the car, Diane right behind her.
"Well?" Emma demands.
I tell her. The custody. The supervised visitation. The six months. The conditions. The whole shape of it.
Emma absorbs this. So does Diane.
"Harper stays," Emma says.
"Harper stays."
"That's the answer." She pulls me into a hug. "That's the only one that mattered."
Diane is crying, the quiet kind. She doesn't say anything for a minute. "We can work with this."
"Yeah."
"We can work with this," she repeats, more firmly. "You did it, Tyler.”
Inside, Harper's in her playpen, and the second she sees us, she reaches up with both hands. I scoop her up, holding her so tight she squeaks.
"You're staying, baby girl," I whisper into her hair. "You're staying right here."
She grabs my face with both hands and babbles something that sounds almost like Dada, and I lose it a little, tears streaming down my face while Emma takes a hundred photos.
We celebrate. Quieter than we would have if it had been a clean win, but real. Emma orders pizza. Diane opens the champagne she'd brought. Everyone passes Harper around. Nora keeps catching my eye and smiling, that small, certain smile she does when she's letting herself feel something.
Danny texts from the team group chat. He'd found out somehow, probably from Liam.
Danny: Heard the news. Harper stays. That's the win. Love you, brother.
And below that, from a number I don't immediately recognize.
Unknown: Glad it went your way, West. She belongs with you, R. Johnson
Reaper.I read it twice. Then I put my phone in my pocket.
Around six, Emma checksher watch.
"We should head out. You two need time to process. To celebrate properly." She hugs me tight. "I'm so proud of you, Ty. So incredibly proud."
