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Her eyes are teary but they’re shining.

“I have a very strong urge to tell you that if you cry, I’ll suffocate you with a snowball,” I inform her solemnly. “But I won’t.”

Her teary eyes brighten even more, and a laugh slips out of her, soft and shaky. “I love you so much, Artemis.”

My throat tightens.

She reaches up to cup my cheek, her thumb brushing gently beneath my eye even though I haven’t cried. “Thank you for choosing me,” she whispers. “And thank you for teaching me how to be strong.”

I frown at her, genuinely confused.

“You did that,” she adds.

Crack.

There goes my heart again.

My eyes begin to sting, but I blink the damn tears away before they can fall.

I know what she’s suffered. I know what being strong has meant for her, how much it has cost her, and how often she’s had to smile through things that would have broken someone else.

I know my girl.

I reach up and wipe away her tears with my thumbs before gently squishing her cheeks between my hands.“I’ll always kill anything that hurts you,” I promise.

I release her face.

She smiles softly.

“I’ll also always choose you.”

Her mouth trembles.

Oh, no.

When she makes that ugly little face she gets right before she cries, I immediately release her and give her my bitchiest look.

“Don’t you dare.”

She lets out a strangled hiccup before bursting into laughter, complete with those ridiculous little snorts she tries so hard to suppress.

I’ve missed that sound.

So much.

Someone clears his throat behind us, making us both turn.

Zymon.

Stephen’s producer.

Why is he still here?

And why is he looking at Stevie like that?

It’s not an ordinary look, either. It’s quiet, almost as if he’s trying to memorize something about her without getting caught doing it.

Huh.