Consciousness stole into me like a thief in the night, and with a groan, I rolled onto my side. William quickly revealed himself the culprit with a wail, and with a second, deeper groan I forced my weary limbs to cooperate. I shuffled over to his crib and gently lifted him to my chest. My hands moved on automatic, one rubbing soft circles on his back as I murmured gentle nothings in his ear, the other checking his diaper.

Clean. “Hungry, little guy?” I asked, sleepiness woven through the words.

The bright green ‘3:13 AM’ on my bedside alarm clock taunted me, and the still empty sheets on Elena’s side worried me, but I couldn’t worry about that yet when William was still bawling in my ear. I tugged the edge of my bra down and lowered him into place. He started drinking, his simple worries forgotten, and I returned to my own, not so simple worries with a sigh.

Elena was out late. Again.

Doctor visits, food, diapers… They all cost money, and we had less of it than ever. I could work while pregnant, but I couldn’t work with a baby in tow. More bills meant more work for Elena, which meant less time together, which meant—

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

No. No, no, no, stop it. There was no point crying over what we couldn’t change.

Except we could change it. I could swallow my pride and ask Klaus for help. If he knew how bad it had gotten… Or I could appeal to Mother and Father, go crawling back to them in the hope they would have mercy on their grandson, if not myself. Fuck, maybe I could convince Elena to stop being paranoid her family would find us and just join the Protectorate? With the way things were in New York, they would surely overlook her past to enlist a cape as talented as her.

A whimper from William drew me out of my spiraling thoughts. He stared up at me with those big, bright brown eyes, and I forced a smile on my face, forced myself to ignore how Masuyo had those same eyes.

“You’re okay,” I whispered, the words so soft they scarcely left my lips at all. “You’re alright.”

He gurgled, content and blessedly began to succumb to sleep once again. I continued to rock him—my William, my light—in my arms, and eventually my gentle murmurs coaxed him back into the land of dreams. I laid him down in the crib and quietly slunk back into the empty sheets.

I didn’t know what tomorrow would bring, but whatever darkness it brought, I would find a way to cast it out.

Nothing would take me from him.