Chapter 74
Nolan
It's complicated, this emotion.
Watching Jack and Ciel together feels like watching a sun I've spent years orbiting — suddenly realizing someone else has built a home right next to it. I feel like I'm being replaced. Like I'm slowly fading out of a picture that's always been just the two of us.
And yet… I'm happy for him.
And at the same time, I hate that I'm not there. That it's not me. That I've never been enough.
Lanny shifts in his crib with a soft, content sigh. I lean against the polished wood frame and stare down at him. His little fists are balled up in sleep, his hair already darkening — catching the same crimson tint Ciel has. There's something achingly beautiful about it. Familiar.
He looks so much like him already.
I reach out, tracing the air just above his tiny forehead without touching him.
"Cute," I whisper.
