Chapter 26
Olivia
Isat frozen in Malik’s front room, my mind reeling.
He had been raising a child I had birthed in another lifetime?
First, her caregiver was a demon of darkness. Second, I don’t remember giving birth to Rosie because it happened in another incarnation.
My breath hitched.
I had always dreamed of giving birth—of holding a child, a beloved daughter I never knew. The dreams were vivid and visceral, but I had always convinced myself they were just that—dreams.
Yet Malik’s story…
It felt real.
Too real.
I clenched my hands into fists, feeling like an utter fool as I stared blankly into space, trying and failing to process this impossible reality.
How could this be?
The miscarriage of the child Roman and I had conceived in this lifetime had devastated me. I had felt connected to that baby from the moment I knew they existed. I still grieved their loss, still felt the ache of something stolen too soon.
But Rosie?
This bright, breathing child—Roman’s eyes staring up at me, wide and curious?
I wanted to feel something. I searched for it—longed for it.
But the connection didn’t come, not the way I thought it would.
And that quiet absence... it broke something open inside me.
“So, a child we bore in another lifetime is alive today,” Roman said, voicing my exact thoughts.
Malik gave a simple nod. “Yes, that’s correct. It’s one of those things I don’t expect you to understand with your human minds.”
I shot him a look. “Good. Because I’m struggling to wrap my brain around it.”
My fingers twitched, restless, unsettled. “I do care about Rosie. I’ve been protecting and watching over her, but I still don’t feel the maternal instinct I think I’m supposed to.” I swallowed hard. “And that messes with how I see myself as a mother to her.”
A quiet admission. A brutal truth.
I reached out to Roman, needing his steadiness and warmth. He laced his fingers with mine, his grip firm but uncertain. His expression mirrored my own—conflicted, lost, adrift in something far greater than us.
Malik’s voice broke the silence, smooth, final. “Nothing needs to change.”
I turned back to him, my chest tightening.
“Rosie is brilliant. She will see you both as good friends, not her biological parents. And as far as she and I are concerned, she is my child, and I am her father.”
He met my gaze, nodding as if the matter had already been settled. “I don’t expect that to change.”
He shifted slightly, something softer crossing his face before he continued.
“Of course, I hope you will develop a relationship with her,” Malik said. “But the bonds we share run deep. Although she is only five, we have helped one another through tragic times.”
His expression softened, his gaze drifting into the distance as if lost in memory.
“Through her, I learned how to love without any strings attached.”
Then his eyes returned to me, piercing and full of quiet desperation. “You don’t want to take that away from me?”
“No, no,” I said quickly, shaking my head. “It makes perfect sense for you to continue caring for Rosie if that’s what you want, Malik.”
I turned to Roman, needing his reassurance. “Don’t you agree, my love?”
“Absolutely.” Roman nodded vigorously, his agreement resolute.
Still, the logic of it all twisted inside me, unsettling and impossible to fully grasp.
How was a child born in another lifetime, in another century, now only five years old?
The only answer that made sense was time itself—that Malik had pulled Rosie forward, bending the past and present as only a creature of darkness could.
My heart ached as I looked between the two men before me.
Roman—the love of my life, my soul’s anchor. And Malik—a man forged in pain, cursed by time, forever searching for something beyond his reach.
Malik had lived a cruel life. He had lost Layla, forced to watch Balthazar tear the life from her with his own hands. How devastating that must have been.
And then, as if fate had not been unkind enough, he had fallen for me—or rather, my past version.
But my heart would always belong to Roman.
Malik had known it. He had watched as history played out against him, watched as Isabelle and Armand—the only people he had ever considered family—were torn away, swallowed by death’s embrace.
How merciless would it be to rip Rosie from his life now?
To claim her in some possessive grasp, as if biology alone gave me any right?
I wouldn’t do that.
Malik had cared for her and loved her. Protected her.
And in doing so, he had proven a truth few would ever believe—
That even monsters could evolve.
I released Roman’s hand and leaned forward, reaching for Malik’s. “I’m so very grateful to you.”
Malik’s eyes met mine, shining with something unspoken.
“I don’t know why I didn’t see it sooner,” I continued, my voice thick with realization.
“Rosie looks so much like Roman. I saw it—I just didn’t think it was possible, so I dismissed it.”
I squeezed his hand before settling beside my husband, curling my feet on the sofa, and leaning into Roman’s warmth.
“You took her amid tragedy,” I said softly. “And raised her as your own. How could we not be grateful?”
Malik smiled—small, quiet, but real.
“The moment I laid eyes on Rosie, I knew she was mine,” he admitted. “Not by blood, but by bond. I couldn’t hand her over to strangers. I couldn’t leave her to fate.”
His voice held the weight of centuries, of loss and longing.
“Taking her in was both a sacrifice and a gift. She was your child, but she became my purpose. I raised her as I imagined you would have wanted her cared for.” His gaze flickered between us, steady with conviction.
“Rosie has never wanted for anything. I’ve given her love, companionship, and friendship.
And I will stop at nothing to protect her. ”
Roman’s grip around me tightened, his voice rich with emotion. “Our gratitude knows no limits.”
His eyes gleamed in the dim light, reflecting something fierce and unyielding.
“You not only saved our child in another lifetime, Malik, but you saved me—twice. You pulled me from Balthazar’s lair.
You carried me through a time when I lay dying on the battlefield.
Without you, I would have perished both times. ”
A single tear slipped down Malik’s cheek.
He swiped it away, his voice rough, strained. “I love you both.”
He took a breath. “I only want to make amends for my mistakes… not to repeat the past. Caring for Rosie has given me a heart, a reason to live. You may think it was a small thing, but to me—” He swallowed hard, his voice breaking slightly.
“She has been the greatest gift of all.”
Malik crossed to the fire, taking up the iron poker and jabbing at the burning logs with deliberate force, as if willing the flames to swallow his vulnerability.
Roman and I exchanged a glance.
I took a breath before speaking. “Malik, we’re thankful for everything you’ve done for us. You’re not a monster.”
He didn’t turn around. He remained crouched before the fire, his broad back to us, his body rigid.
“I’m here for both of you,” he murmured. “And I want to beg your forgiveness for the anger, the sadness—the pain I’ve caused.”
He rose then, pivoting to face us. His expression was unreadable, his face carved from stone. Only his eyes betrayed him, shadowed by a past he could never outrun.
“Everything I’ve done was my ultimate do-over.” His voice was resolute, but beneath it lay something raw, something fractured. “Each time I look at you, I see Isabelle and Armand. And it fills me with remorse. It drives me to make amends.”
For a moment, the room was silent but for the gentle crackling of the fire.
Then Roman cleared his throat and pushed himself to his feet. He crossed the room with measured steps, coming to stand before Malik.
The two men locked eyes—one of the darkness, the other forged in battle.
“Even if we have lived before,” Roman said. “I am different now.”
He exhaled. “I was a gladiator in this life. I fought for my existence in the Colosseum. But once I left Rome, you saved my life.”
Roman placed a firm hand on Malik’s shoulder.
“That means something to me.”
A heavy pause stretched between them, the weight of their shared past across time, across lifetimes, settling in the space between their words.
“We had an honor code as gladiators,” Roman continued. “If someone saved us from death, we were bound to them for life.”
His grip tightened slightly.
“You’re the darkness, Malik. You could have killed me at any time. But you didn’t.”
The firelight lit Malik’s features, highlighting the tension in his jaw and how his throat moved when he swallowed.
Roman’s voice softened. “You took care of my wife when I was gone. And when your heart is on the line—with Olivia, I know that must be hard for you.”
For a long moment, neither man spoke.
Then, finally, they nodded at one another.
A silent understanding.
A bond forged not just through past lifetimes, but through the choices made in this one.
I felt my throat tighten.
The sincerity in Roman’s voice and the quiet regard Malik showed for my husband were almost too much.
I pressed a hand to my chest, forcing back the emotions swelling inside me.
Because for the first time, I understood something.
This wasn’t just a tangled web of past lives and old regrets.
This was family.
Roman’s voice broke the silence, steady and certain. “As long as we don’t repeat history, I trust you.”
He exhaled, his expression unreadable for a moment before it softened. “I’m willing to move on and start fresh in this lifetime. We are truly brothers.”
He extended his arms, and Malik stepped forward.
The two men embraced.
I sniffled, barely holding back my tears.
It was a beautiful exchange. A moment of reconciliation that spanned centuries.
When they broke apart, Malik met Roman’s eyes, his expression fierce and determined. “Everything I do is to protect you. To destroy the evil that still exists.”
He touched Roman’s back, guiding him toward me before they retook their seats.