Page 60 of The Monster's Daughter

She flinches.

I stand and walk to her slowly, kneel beside her chair. “You should’ve told me. Yes. But I get it. I do. You were scared. You were surviving. You did everything you could to protect her. And that means you protectedme, too. Even when I didn’t deserve it.”

She cups my cheek with her metal hand. The metal’s warm. Human-warm.

“Kage,” she whispers. “I wanted to tell you. I swear I did.”

“I know.”

And I do.

I take her hand and kiss the metal knuckles. She trembles.

Natalie’s door creaks open somewhere down the hall. We both freeze.

“Mama?” she calls sleepily.

Bella gets up, smooths her hair, and pads down the hallway. I hear murmurs. A lullaby. A little laugh.

Then silence.

She comes back minutes later, eyes puffy, mouth soft. She walks past me, into her bedroom, but doesn’t close the door.

Just leaves it open.

Invitation.

The room is dim.Moonlight slants through the curtains in pale ribbons. Her bed’s not made—sheets twisted like a storm rolled through.

She sits on the edge, back to me.

“You can stay,” she says.

My chest thuds. “Are you sure?”

She nods.

I cross the room, slow. Sit beside her. Not touching. Not yet.

We sit like that for a long time. Breathing. Existing.

She speaks first. “Do you hate me?”

It’s a whisper. A fracture.

I turn toward her. Touch her chin, guide her face to mine.

“I love you.”

Her breath shudders out. Her lips part like she’s about to argue, but I kiss her before she can.

It’s not the kind of kiss that burns.

Itheals.

Deep and aching. The kind of kiss that says,I found you in the dark and I’m not letting go.

We undress without words.