Chapter 212 - Two Hundred and twelve
Chapter Two Hundred and twelve
Malachi’s POV
I noticed it first in the small things.
The way Alicia’s eyes lit up when she talked about the foundation in a way they didn’t when we discussed what to make for dinner or whether Lia needed new clothes. The energy in her voice when she was on the phone with lawyers setting up the nonprofit structure, animated and engaged in a way she hadn’t been in months. The purposeful stride in her walk when she headed to meetings, her shoulders back and her chin up like she was going into battle for something that mattered.
She was coming back to herself. The woman I’d fallen in love with in that dark room three years ago, the one who’d had fire in her eyes even when Travis had tried to beat it out of her. That woman had been buried under months of pregnancy and new motherhood and the overwhelming exhaustion of caring for an infant, but she was emerging again, and it was beautiful to watch.
"You’re staring," she said one morning, catching me watching her over my coffee while she reviewed grant applications at the kitchen table, Lia contentedly gnawing on a teething ring in her lap.
"I’m admiring my wife," I corrected, taking another sip. "There’s a difference."
"What are you admiring exactly? My unwashed hair? The spit-up stain on my shirt that I haven’t had time to change? My stunning lack of sleep?"
"Your passion. Your purpose. The fact that you’re changing lives while simultaneously keeping our daughter alive and relatively clean. It’s impressive."
She looked up from the papers, her expression softening in that way that still made my chest tight even after all these months together. "Thank you for this. For supporting it. I know it means less time with Lia, less time being the perfect domestic wife—"