Page 137 of No Merciful Corruption

I reach up and push the hair out of her face. “You gave up a lot to be with me.”

“Yes. I did.”

“You changed a lot too.” I muse aloud. “Sometimes it feels like I…I don’t know. Like I corrupted you somehow.”

“You corrupt me often. I believe that’s how I got pregnant in the first place.” She teases.

“Dahlia.”

“What? You can make a dirty joke and I can’t? You’re no fun.” Sensing how serious I am, she tilts her head and lays a hand on my chest. “Is everything okay? Are you upset?”

“No. Quite the opposite. I think this is the happiest I’ve ever been in my entire life.”

She takes her hand in mine and says, “You are worth every sacrifice I have ever made. Worth that and then some. I know I…well, in the beginning, I was a little difficult.”

“Dee—”

“No, wait, please? Let me say this.” She presses her lips together before continuing. “You make this life worth living for me. You and nothing else. I’d love you as you are now, as a humble farmer, or as the most powerful man in the world. You would still be you and whatever I’d have to do to have you, to fit into your world, I would do it. Because you fit into mine.

“I know sometimes you think we’re on an uneven playing field and maybe that’s true. I did have to sacrifice a lot and I have changed but not in the ways that matter. You make me so happy.” She whispers. “You’re everything I’ve ever dreamed of and then some. So whatever it is, get out of your head about it. I want you to be here with me and not somewhere in your thoughts, a million miles away.”

Where words fail me, I settle for a kiss instead.

Dahlia leans into me and fists the front of my shirt as she holds me closer. I’m so caught up in the moment I almost forget my entire family is here.

Someone whistles and I look over.

“Oye, primo,” Anthony teases. “You don’t need to show us how Dahlia found herself in this condition. We already know.”

Everyone laughs but my body seizes with alarm the moment Dahlia tenses in my arms.

“Are you all right?”

With pinched brows and a scrunched-up nose, she nods through deep breaths. “That one hurt more than usual. I think I should—ow!”

Dahlia screams.

The whole room falls dead silent. Dahlia’s eyes widen with shock as she looks at me. ‘That really hurt.”

“Do you⁠—”

Dahlia cries out and the sound is followed by a gasp. Karina springs to her feet and rushes over from where she was by the water fountain.

“Dee?” she says.

“I—”

Dahlia can’t seem to get a word out. All of sudden there’s a whoosh and liquid pools beneath her feet. Chaos erupts around us.

“The baby’s coming!”

“Where’s the car?”

“I don’t know, who has the keys?”

“Someone get my purse!”

“Kay,” Dahlia says in a shaky voice. “I’m…I’m early. Kay, I’m early.”