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I haven’t shared the details of the case with her.

Emma is a strong woman, but I don’t want her to know about the evils of the world. I don’t want her worried about things that are mostly out of her control.

“I’m making waffles for everyone,” Alaric announces, heading toward the stairs. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”

All of us stayed up talking the whole night. There was a lot to catch up on, and sleep didn’t feel so important.

“We’ll join you in a bit,” I tell him.

It’s just Emma and me standing in the corridor now. I pull my woman toward me and hold her close.

“How are you holding up?” she asks me.

“I’m happy,” I say. “That things are back to normal again.”

She rubs my back. “It must have been so stressful for you, knowing that your sister was out there but not knowing where she was.”

After the car accident, I went through Richard’s books and learned that he was in a lot of debt. He owed money to some dangerous people, so I imagined the worst. I assumed that one of his enemies decided to get revenge. But so much of it didn’t add up.

The hopelessness never faded.

And when things were at an all-time low, Emma walked into my life.

Nothing had changed, but everything was different. She was a ray of sunshine that lit up my whole world, making everything beautiful again.

“It’s all over now,” Emma says, looking up at me. “Now what?”

“Now, I get to spend the rest of my life loving you,” I say, kissing the top of her head. “Now, we go to Disney World and Spain.”

“Spain?” she asks.

“Alaric took me there the summer after college,” I say. “It’s the place I love most in the world. I want to show it to you.”

She burrows her face against my chest.

“I would love that, Klaus,” she says.

“I can’t wait to make you my wife,” I say. “If you let me, I would marry you in a courthouse.”

“I’m not opposed to that idea.” She looks up at me.

As our eyes lock, something passes between the two of us. It’s an understanding of the souls.

“Sera will be heartbroken, though,” Emma says, discarding the idea.

“About what?” Sera asks, stepping out of the bedroom. The kids are in tow behind her.

Emma turns to look at my sister. “We don’t know if we’regoing to actually do it, but we were considering tying the knot today.”

Sera’s eyebrows jump up. “Today?”

“The timing isn’t right, though,” Emma says quickly. “With everything going on, it’s probably best to take a few days to just breathe.”

Sera is grinning now. Her cheeks are red from crying, but there’s so much love in her eyes.

“If you want to do it, you should do it,” Sera says. “I was just teasing my brother with the big wedding idea.”

“No, you weren’t,” I say.