Chapter 23
Marriage to Amelia was everything Michael had dared to hope for and more.
She didn’t try to replace Sarah. She didn’t try to be the children’s “new mom.” She was just Amelia. Their friend. Their confidante. Their partner in all things.
She loved Ethan and Lily fiercely, but she respected their boundaries. She let them come to her. She listened when they talked. She held them when they cried. She never pushed. Never demanded. Never tried to force a love that had to grow on its own.
And grow it did.
Slowly.
Surely.
By the first anniversary of their wedding, Lily was calling her “Mom.” Not all the time. Not on purpose. Just sometimes, when she was tired or excited or hurt. And Amelia never corrected her. She just held her tighter and whispered, “I’m here, baby. I’m always here.”
Ethan never called her Mom. But he started coming to her with things he couldn’t tell his father. Girls. School stress. The nightmares that still came occasionally. She became his safe place. The person he could be weak around without feeling like he had to be the man of the house.
Michael watched it all with a full heart.
He had spent so many years afraid of what a stepmother could do to his family. He had almost forgotten that a stepmother could be a gift. A blessing. The missing piece they hadn’t known they needed.
Amelia was that gift.
That blessing.
That missing piece.
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On their first wedding anniversary, she gave Michael the greatest gift of all.
She was pregnant.
