Page 189 of Modern Romance September 2025 5-8

‘Who?’ he growled.

A tear slipped from the corner of her eye.

‘Your son.’

‘My son?’ he repeated, and he couldn’t fight it.

Amelia, clear as the day she was born, formed in his mind. Her tiny fingers. Her innocent eyes. He’d loved her instantly. And he couldn’t ignore it. The fear in his gut. What if he couldn’t give his baby the same?

What if he could not love his son?

‘This way,’ Esther said, and she led him down the corridor.

‘He’s in here,’ she said, stopping.

She held the door open for him. The bed was empty, but beside it sat a crib on wheels. A hand, so small, fingers so tiny, peeped out at him over the rim.

He rushed to the crib and peered inside…

His heart burst.

He was perfection. He was… He had Aurora’s black hair, thick and too long for a newborn. He had a little button nose, plum lips. But his eyes, they were just like Sebastian’s.

And he vowed right there and then, his little eyes would never see the horrors his father had.

He dipped his hands inside, and he picked up his son. Claimed him. He brought him to his chest. Cradled him, kept him warm beneath the brown furs he wore.

It was instant.

The love.

The unconditional love.

Sebastian turned to Esther. Tears filled his eyes. ‘I have a son.’

‘You do.’ She smiled, flaunted all of her perfectly square teeth as her eyes cried. ‘Congratulations, Sebastian. You’re a father.’

Sebastian closed his eyes.

And he wept.

All the tears he hadn’t before been able to. For the boy he had been. For Amelia. For his son. For Aurora. And he cried, too, for love.

The love in his heart. The love all around him, in the touch of his son, in Esther’s eyes. And they offered him nothing but warmth. Acceptance.

He knew he would never be cold again.

He was loved.

He loved them all, he realised.

Had she lifted the curse?

Had Aurora set him free?

Aurora opened her eyes. Soft amber lights lit the space. A room as big as any hotel room. A blue vertical tunnel sat in the room’s corner.

She watched the bubbles rise in the softly swirling water. Let her eyes adjust to being here. To still being alive. To surviving. She breathed in deeply. Felt her lungs rise and fall. Her fingers gripped something too soft, too familiar. A brown blanket of the softest fur covered her body.