Chapter 43 #4
Lingling stared at their hands.
Then she suddenly laughed again.
A genuine laugh.
Warm.
Disbelieving.
Almost childlike.
"We're going to have a baby."
Orm smiled through tears.
"Yes."
Lingling shook her head.
"You're pregnant."
Orm nodded.
"Yes."
"With my baby."
"Yes."
Lingling's eyes filled again.
She leaned down and pressed a trembling kiss against Orm's stomach.
There was no visible bump yet.
No movement.
No little kick.
Nothing that could be felt.
And yet Lingling stayed there.
Her forehead resting gently against Orm.
Her tears falling silently.
"Hi," she whispered.
Orm covered her mouth.
Lingling smiled.
"It's Dadda."
Her voice broke.
"I know you can't hear me yet."
Orm started crying again.
"But I've already been waiting for you for years."
She closed her eyes.
"And I promise..."
Lingling took a shaky breath.
"I'll spend the rest of my life making sure you know how loved you are."
Orm pulled Lingling back into her arms.
They cried together.
Not because they were broken.
Not because they were afraid.
But because sometimes happiness could hurt just as much as grief when you had spent too long believing you would never have it.
For four years, Lingling had carried a dream she thought she would never touch.
A family.
A child.
Orm.
A home.
And somehow, after everything they had endured...
the dream had found its way back to her.
Not through careful planning.
Not through perfect timing.
But unexpectedly.
Beautifully.
Imperfectly.
Real.
Orm rested her forehead against Lingling's.
"I'm still scared."
Lingling smiled softly.
"So am I."
"What if we don't know what we're doing?"
"We won't."
Orm blinked.
Lingling laughed.
"Nobody knows what they're doing."
Orm smiled.
"That's reassuring."
"We'll learn."
"Together?"
Lingling kissed her forehead.
"Always."
They stayed on the balcony for a long time.
Neither of them wanted to go inside yet.
The sonogram rested safely between them.
Orm's head rested against Lingling's shoulder.
Lingling's hand remained over Orm's stomach.
Neither woman spoke.
They didn't need to.
No dramatic promises.
No declarations about forever.
Just two women who had once lost each other...
finally sitting beside each other again.
Two women who had spent years believing they had missed their chance.
Two women who had learned that love could disappear beneath the weight of time, distance, mistakes, and heartbreak...
but sometimes, impossibly,
it could find its way home.
And inside the apartment, a little boy slept peacefully.
Unaware that something beautiful had changed.
Unaware that tomorrow, his world would become a little bigger.
Unaware that somewhere beneath his mother's heart, another little heartbeat had begun.
Unaware that he was going to become a big brother.
His Wingwing was no longer on a screen.
She was here.
In Bangkok.
Close enough to hug.
Close enough to hear.
Close enough to stay.
And for the first time since their reunion in Phuket, the future no longer looked like something they had to reach across an ocean to find.
It was right there.
In the apartment.
In the laughter they had shared that morning.
In the flowers sitting by the window.
In Liam's dinosaur pajamas.
In the soccer ball lying abandoned on the floor.
In the sonogram resting carefully on the table.
In Orm's hand resting inside Lingling's.
And in the tiny secret growing beneath Orm's heart.
They were still taking things slowly.
Still healing.
Still learning.
Still figuring out what their relationship would become.
They didn't know what tomorrow would bring.
They didn't know how difficult parenthood would be.
They didn't know how many sleepless nights awaited them.
They didn't know how many arguments, tears, fears, and uncertainties they would have to face.
But for once...
they weren't afraid of not knowing.
Because they would face it together.
Tonight, for the first time, distance was no longer standing between them.
The years were no longer standing between them.
The past was no longer strong enough to pull them apart.
And perhaps that was the greatest gift Lingling could have given them.
Not a bouquet.
Not a surprise visit.
Not even the transfer.
But her presence.
Her decision to stay.
Her willingness to choose Orm again.
To choose Liam.
To choose the little life they had only just discovered.
To choose the future, even when neither of them knew exactly what that future would look like.
Because sometimes, after years of waiting, love didn't return with fireworks.
Sometimes it didn't arrive with grand speeches or perfect timing.
Sometimes it simply arrived at five in the morning...
holding flowers...
wearing a tired smile...
with a heart full of everything it had been too afraid to say...
and whispering,
"I'm home."
And this time,
Orm was there to open the door.
This time,
Lingling didn't have to leave.
This time,
Orm didn't have to wait.
This time,
they were both home.