Page 135 of Modern Romance January 2025 5-8

What exactly is happening?

He loves me.

He loved her, and she had to wait for him to wake up.

She needed him to wake up. But she didn’t need him to be physically perfect. She would care for him. She would stay with him.

You are going to marry a billionaire and abandon our business, are you?

No. I mean, I might marry a billionaire. But I’ll always be your work wife.

Work Wives Forever.

A man in scrubs entered the room. “He did well. He woke up talking.”

“And his vision?”

“Come and see him. And let him see you.”

On shaking legs she walked into the recovery room. And there he was, his head leaned back against the pillow. Looking alarmingly handsome in spite of everything.

His eyes fluttered open and came to rest on her. He could see her. She knew that he could.

“Auggie,” he said. “I hope that I can see and that this isn’t a dream. I hope that you’re here.”

“I’m here.”

“You came for me. You saw what I wrote.”

“I did. But not until I was already here. Because... Just because you sent me away didn’t mean I didn’t love you. And I needed to be here for this. I had to.”

“That is more than I deserve.”

“It’s how I love. Fierce and tough and forever.”

“I don’t know how I love,” he said. “I haven’t even been certain of what it is until... Until you. I am afraid that it is hard and complicated. But it will take a long time for me to figure out how to get it just right. But I want to try, Auggie. I want a life. Not a mission. I want picnics. And smell the flowers. And to live. I want to be my own, but most of all I want to be yours.”

“You’re just saying that because you’re so happy you can see.”

“To be honest, I cared about that less than I could’ve imagined except... I wanted to see your face. I wanted to see your face since I fell in love with you. And you are even more beautiful than I remembered.”

She closed the distance between them and went to his bedside. She reached out and took his hand and pressed her cheek against it. “Now you really are delirious. I haven’t slept and I look like garbage.”

“No. You are the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen. And I am seeing you really. For the first time. Because I really do see it now. I was running from pain, but you can’t run from that. Guilt and anger were preferable to missing her. To mourning a childhood I did not choose. But if you didn’t choose it then neither did I. These hard things... They just are. You are a living testament to the fact that it is what you do after that matters. You did so much more with your hand than I did with mine. I want to be like you. And maybe I will not be a simple character for the world anymore. But I will be a real person. And that is infinitely better, I think.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

EPILOGUE

The Pitbull puppies are on board.

MATIASSENTTHATtext to his wife’s group chat, even though the women were just outside in the waiting room. He smiled to himself as he looked down at his beautiful bride and the two babies she held in her arms.

Twins. He had never imagined so much joy.

A boy and a girl.