Page 205 of Beautifully Scarred Omega

Sophie swats him on the chest. He catches her hand and kisses it, grinning, and the look she gives him is so fondly exasperated it makes my heart ache.

She glows.

She looks nothing like the woman I watched lying in a hospital bed, pale and remote and utterly unreachable. She looks like someone who has come home after a very long time of not knowing where home was. Relaxed in a way I have never seen her. Content in a way I never dared to hope for.

I’m reaching for my wine when I catch Max glancing at Finn and Ethan, both of them giving the smallest nod back. Max pushes his chair back and stands, and the table goes quiet instantly.

“Kit. Griffin. Nolan. Declan.” His green eyes move around the table, and there’s an easy warmth there that I suspect most people never get to see. “We asked you here today for several reasons. To say thank you—for being here, but also for taking care of Sophie all these years. For being her family before we were.”

Sophie’s eyes are bright. He looks at her, and the composure on his face softens into something so tender it makes my breath catch. Beside him, Finn and Ethan rise from their chairs.

“When we first met Sophie, we weren’t sure what to expect,” Finn says. “But one thing’s for sure—none of us expected to find what we found with her.”

“And we feel grateful every day that she chose us,” Ethan adds quietly.

And then, one by one, they go down on one knee.

Sophie’s hand flies to her mouth.

“Sophie.” Max’s voice is steady, but I can see his hands shaking from where I’m sitting. “Will you marry us?”

“Officially,” Finn says, his blue eyes bright. “So the whole world knows you’re ours.”

“We love you,” Ethan says quietly. “And we would very much like to spend the rest of our lives with you.”

She is already nodding—emphatically, tears spilling down her cheeks—reaching for them with both hands, touching Finn’s face, Ethan’s jaw, saying yes, yes, of course, yes, obviously yes⁠—

Finn reaches into his pocket and pulls out a ring box. He opens it smoothly, like he’s practiced this a dozen times.

The ring is enormous. The stone catches the light and refracts it in approximately forty-seven directions. It must have cost a fortune, and it’s the least Sophie-like object I have ever seen.

Sophie stares at it, the eager nodding gradually slowing as her eyes move over the enormous stone. I watch her expression shift, the delight still there but edged now with uncertainty, as though she’s searching for the right reaction and hoping no one notices.

“Right,” Ethan says. He reaches into his own pocket and pulls out a second box. “We thought you might feel that way.”

He opens it. Inside is a plain white-gold band with a single small diamond set flush into the metal so it won’t catch on anything.

It’s understated and elegant and completely her.

“That’s the one,” Sophie says immediately.

“I know,” Ethan says.

They’re on their feet then, all three of them reaching for her at once. Max cups her face and wipes the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs before he kisses her forehead, while Ethan slips his arms around her from behind and kisses the top of her head, eyes closed as he holds her close.

“I told you so,” Finn says to no one in particular.

“You picked the large one,” Ethan points out.

“As a point of comparison. For the bit.” Finn gestures between himself and Sophie. “For this moment, which is working beautifully, I’d like to note.”

“Finn,” Sophie says.

“Yes, sweetheart?”

“Shut up and kiss me.”

He does—pulling her in by the waist and kissing her until she’s laughing against his mouth. Max goes next, slower, his hand cradling the back of her head. And then Ethan takes her face in his hands and presses his lips to hers so gently that I have to look away because I’m crying too hard to see.