Whether fate approved of it… or not.
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Epilogue 1 - Atlas
Most men don’t get second chances.Men like me never do.But somehow, impossibly, I had.
The courtyard was filled with the sound of laughter—bright, uncontrolled, echoing off the stone walls.It took me a moment to recognize it as hers.
Neve laughed like sunlight.
I paused in the doorway, taking her in.
She was kneeling in the grass, coaxing a stray kitten out from beneath a rosemary bush.Her hair fell in loose waves down her back, the morning light turning it bronze.She mumbled something soft, and the kitten inched forward.Trusting.Brave.
Just like her.
She saw me before I moved.
“Don’t scare him,” she warned, eyes narrowing with mock severity.
I stepped closer, hands in my pockets.“I’m not the one who scares things out here.”
The kitten bolted at the sound of my voice.
Neve sighed.“You see?”
I smirked, shrugging one shoulder.“I’ll buy you a hundred cats, if that’s what you want.”
She rolled her eyes but got up and walked toward me.There was something familiar in her expression—that quiet concern she tried not to show, as if I might vanish if she looked too hard.
I understood the feeling.
She slid her hands around my waist.“You’re home early.”
“Handled what needed handling.”I wouldn’t tell her the details.Because some things she just didn’t need to know.
Her fingers traced the ridge in my jaw—a habit she’d picked up months ago, like she wanted to memorize every piece of me to prove I still existed.
“Any trouble?”she asked.
“No.”I lifted her chin gently.“Not anymore.”
There was peace now.Real peace.The first I’d tasted since childhood.It still felt like a miracle.
She rose on her toes, brushing her lips against mine.Soft.Familiar.Necessary.
When she pulled back, she looked up at me with a question in her eyes.
“You okay?”she asked.
I thought about that.About the wars I’d fought.The men I’d buried.The nights I’d believed she was dead.The nights she’d believed the same of me.The way her hand fit into mine even now, grounding me with nothing but touch.
“Yes,” I smiled.“Better than okay.”
She smiled, relief blooming across her face.“Good.”
I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into my chest, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.