Chapter 9 - Building Our Forever
As Sophie grew, her world expanded with every passing season. She started preschool at a small, sunlit school down the coast where children learned to plant tomatoes in the dirt and paint with their fingers instead of worrying about social status and family crests.
She made friends named Leo and Maya, brought home messy paper crafts covered in glitter, and asked endless questions about why the moon changed shape. I answered every single one, kneeling down to her eye level just as I had on that marble floor months ago—not out of desperation, but out of a deep, abiding joy.
One evening, as we walked along the shoreline collecting smooth sea glass as the sun dipped below the horizon, Sophie stopped and tugged on my hand.
"Daddy?" she asked, looking up at me with eyes that mirrored my own.
"Yes, my love?"
She held up a piece of smooth, green sea glass she had polished in her palm. "Are you ever going to leave me?"
I knelt down in the damp sand, ignoring the cold spray of the surf, and took her small, warm hands in mine.
May you like
"Never, Sophie," I said, my voice steady and certain against the wind. "Not in a million years. You are my whole world, and I am right here for good."
She smiled, satisfied with the answer, and slipped her small hand into mine as we walked back toward the warm lights of our home on the cliff.
