Chapter 25 In Re Disposition
IN RE: DISPOSITION
THEO
Theo lies there, utterly still, afraid that moving might break the moment. Lila sleeps against his chest. His body feels wrecked in the best way—every muscle loose, every thought quiet for the first time in so, so long.
He looks down at her, at the soft press of her cheek against his skin, the strand of hair stuck to her lip, the small, involuntary sound she makes when he shifts.
It hits him with unshakable clarity—how beautiful she is, how impossible it feels that she’s here, in his arms, letting him love her after everything.
Even if she doesn’t realize that’s what this is yet. It is.
Always has been.
He runs his thumb along her shoulder, light enough not to wake her. She let him touch her, let him unravel her. That thought alone nearly undoes him again. It would not be the first time he’d come from the thought of her alone.
He’s not a man easily shaken, but this—her—feels like something he’ll never recover from.
Guilt worms its way in, relentless and unyielding.
He knows what’s waiting for them when the truth surfaces, when the omissions he’s tried to ignore finally creep their way into the light. But even that certainty can’t dim this. He’ll find a way. He always does. And maybe—if there’s any equilibrium left in the world—she’ll understand.
She’s logical, rational to the bone. She’ll see that he never meant to hurt her.
The opposite, even.
He presses a kiss to her temple, breathing her in. He’s already too far gone to pretend otherwise. Whatever comes next, he’s not letting her go.