Chapter 128 Love, Mom And Dad
ARDEN
The crest clicked open with a quiet sound, yet I felt it somewhere deep inside my chest.
Inside was a folded piece of paper, creased with time, yellowed at the edges. My hand trembled as I retrieved it. The parchment was fragile between my fingertips, as though it had been waiting years to be read. I stared at it, unable to breathe. Should D
I wasn’t ready.
I didn’t feel ready.
But something in me whispered. You have to.
So I let out a breath. And I opened it.
Two handwritings–wild, messy, overlapping in places. One curving and fluid, the other sharp and angular, as if it were written in excitement and nervousness. But they looked… happy. Like love had spilled right out of their pens,
Hi, future son or daughter,
We don’t know your name yet. Or if you’re even born yet. Or if you’ll end up with your mom’s stubbornness or my crooked nose (Hopefully neither).
But if you’re reading this–hello, sweetheart. You’ve made it. You’re alive. You’re ours. And already, we love you more than we know how to say.
It’s a strange time right now. The Breaking is kicking our asses–pardon my language, your mom will scold me if she ever reads this again. But it’s the truth, We’re trying to get this corrupt bastard out of office. He’s not just bad. He’s rotten all the way through. He’s everything we don’t want the world to be.
But your mom, Beth… your mom is courage made flesh. You should see her. She’s fire and earth and everything that stands its ground. She’s out there every day, marching, leading, saving lives, fighting battles no one sees. I don’t know how I got her. I really don’t.
We didn’t think we’d make it, you know? We were from different worlds. We fought more than we talked at first. Argued about everything. She hated my books, and I thought she was way out of my league. She still is. But somehow, some miracle, we fell in love. And it’s the kind of love that quiets wars. The kind that builds homes from ruins. The kind I hope you’ll find one day, too.
So when we found out you were coming–you–everything changed.
Your mom cried. I laughed like an idiot. We both panicked. But we knew, without a doubt, that you were the most important thing we would ever do.
Tears were in my eyes, causing my vision to blur, but I wiped them away, wanting to read and engrave every word into my brain.
The handwriting then changed to the more angular one, which I presumed was my mom’s
Don’t listen to your father’s yapping. Even my ears hurt sometimes when I listen to him.
There might be a big, bad war coming. I won’t lie to you. We’re doing everything we can to stop it, to keep it from touching you. But if it does… I promise you this.
I will fight with you still inside me.
I’ll carry you through the fire if I have to..
And I will never, never let the darkness take you.
So for these nine months, just support your mommy, okay? I know you’ll be the best thing that’s ever happened to her. You already are.
And if, by some cruel twist of fate, we aren’t there when you read this.. please know–we wanted to be. We planned to be. There hasn’t been a single day since we found out about you that we didn’t picture your first steps, your laugh, your everything-
The world will be better for you, my child.
And you will only get the best..
We promise that
And in return, we only ask for one thing.
Make this world kinder than you found it.
Love fiercely. Fight for what’s right. Hold on to joy with both hands.
And never forget–you are our hope.
You are what made all of this worth it..
We love you. So, so much.
Love.-
Your Mom and Dad,
Beth & Patrick
The paper trembled in my hands because of the wind, but because I was shaking.
I didn’t even know I was crying until the first tear hit the ink, smudging the “B” in Beth.
She had written this for me.
They both had.
They loved me before they ever knew me
They dreamed of me even in a war.
And they tried so hard to give me something better.
1 clutched the letter to my chest, pressing it against my heart like it could somehow mend the aching left behind.
“Moin… Dai…” I whispered into the quiet.
The sob clawed out of me before I could stop it, tearing past my throat. My fingers curled over the letter, creased and worn and soaked through with tears. I don’t know how long I sat there, knees tucked to my chest, shoulders shaking with every breath.
I looked down again and saw them.
Tiny, creased photographs, tucked neatly beneath the letter–polaroids, old–fashioned and grainy. My hands trembled as I picked them up one by one.
There they were.
My parents.
It was similar to the photos I’ve seen in my mom’s office when we first met. She still kept it after all these years, so I could imagine she loved my dad very much.
One photo had my mom smiling widely with wind in her hair, her hand on her still–flat belly. Another had dad standing beside her with paint on his face like someone had tried (and failed) to do a nursery. The last one was when the two of them squished together in a close–up selfie, both of them laughing so hard that their eyes were almost closed. Behind them, the world was falling apart. But they looked like the only two people who had survived it
These were my real parents.
And I had been taken from them.
Why?
How?
Was it because of The Breaking? Had they done it to protect me?
I didn’t know.
Maybe I’d never know.
But what I did know–what I knew down to the marrow of my bones–was that I had been loved.
I had spent so much of my life thinking I wasn’t.
Thinking I was some leftover. Some burden. A mistake.
But I wasn’t.
They had loved me before I even opened my eyes. They had written me letters, painted nurseries, taken photos. They had fought for me. And even if I lost them, even if they were gone, I had always been loved
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Chapter 128 Love, Mom And Dad
The tears came harder. I tried silently, and when the sobs finally slowed, when my hands were tomural hold on anymore, I gently folded the letter again. I mcked it back into the chest, with the Polaroids and necklace.
And I stood.
My legs were shaky, my eyes swollen, my heart too full to hold–but I stood.
Barefoot, I ran out of the room, down the hall, toward the warm light spilling from the living room My chest ached, but not in the same way as before. It ached like something trying to hear again.
And there he was.
Cade. Standing by the counter, drinking water from a glass, his shirt rumpled, his hair still a mess
The moment his eyes landed on me, they widened. “Arden?”
Iran to him…
And he didn’t hesitate. His arms opened wide like they’d been waiting for me all this time.
I crashed into his chest, wrapped my arms around his waist, and held on.
This man.
This man I love.
This man I really, really love.
Cade buried his face in my hair, one hand cradling the back of my head, the other wrapping tight around my waist.
I need to make the most of life. That’s what they would want–Mom and Dad. They would want me to live it fully, love deeply, and never let the darkness win.
So I said the only thing that mattered.
“I love you,” I whispered. Then again, louder, “I love you.” I pulled back just enough to look at him, eyes blurry with tears, my voice cracking as I said it over and over. “I love you. Cade. I love you. I’m so glad you’re my mate.”
His lips twitched into a soft smile, and he leaned down to gently kiss my forehead, so gentle I thought I might fall apart again.
“Me too,” he murmured. “Me to
He pulled me tighter into his chest. “I’ll make the world better for you,” he whispered.
And I sobbed.
Because even when my parents weren’t around anymore.
Cade was there to make the world better.
Not for me.
But with me.
