“I know that now.”
“Why did you believe them?”
Her expression hardened.
“Because they sounded like the man you had become.”
That answer hurt more than any accusation.
Damon looked at the twins again.
His twins.
The realization entered slowly, then all at once.
Two lives had begun without him.
Two heartbeats had grown while he signed contracts, boarded private planes, and congratulated himself on surviving a divorce he had never truly understood.
His knees felt weak.
“You said they’re mine.”
Sylvie held his gaze.
“You’re already their father.”
Six words.
That was all it took to tear down every defense he had built.
Damon approached the bed.
The baby in the blue-striped blanket moved, revealing dark hair and a tiny furrow between his eyebrows that looked painfully familiar.
The second child had Sylvie’s delicate mouth.
“What are their names?” he asked.
“Elias and Elodie.”
His throat tightened.
“You named them?”
“I had to call them something while I waited for you.”
Damon looked away.
For fifteen years, he had been the most controlled man in every room.
Now he could barely breathe.
“You should hold them,” Sylvie said.
He stared at her.
“I don’t know how.”
A faint laugh escaped her, weary but real.
“You negotiate billion-dollar deals.”
“This is different.”
“Yes,” she said.
“This matters.”
She placed Elias into his left arm and Elodie into his right.
Damon froze.
Elias shifted against his chest.
Elodie opened her mouth in a tiny yawn.
Then one miniature hand closed around Damon’s finger.
Something broke inside him.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
It simply gave way.
His eyes burned.
His vision blurred.
He lowered his head over the twins, terrified that even breathing too hard might harm them.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, though he did not know whether he was speaking to the babies or to Sylvie.
Then Sylvie’s expression changed.
She looked past him toward the window.
Fear appeared in her eyes.
Real fear.
“Damon,” she said quietly, “there’s a reason I disappeared.”
He followed her gaze.
A black SUV had stopped near the hospital entrance.
