Chapter 62

Lumi

My hand shook so badly I could barely lift it. But I made myself look. I owed Neve that much, even if I didn’t know yet what I was bracing for.

I blinked down at the papers in her hand, my eyes struggling to focus through the panic still ringing in my ears. It wasn’t a photograph at all. It was a stack of official documents, crisp and formal, stamped with a heavy court seal near the bottom.

I frowned, my brain still catching up. "What... what is this?"

Neve was smiling. Actually smiling, wide and bright, the kind of smile that didn’t match anything about the tension that had just been sitting in the room a second ago.

"What’s this?" I asked again, completely confused, my heart still hammering from the fright of a moment before.

"What does it look like?" Neve said, holding it out further, practically bouncing on her feet now.

I took the papers properly this time, scanning the top line. Divorce Decree. My name. Callum’s name. Finalised.

My breath caught in my throat. I flipped to the next page, my eyes racing over the legal language, the signatures, the official stamp dated only hours ago.

It was real. It was actually real.

"Neve..." My voice broke completely. Before I could even finish her name, she’d already crossed the room and pulled me into a fierce, tight hug, squeezing the papers between us.

"It’s time to start afresh," she said into my hair, her own voice thick now. "Told you I’ve got you."

I clung to her, tears spilling over before I could stop them, a strange, dizzying mix of relief and disbelief flooding through my chest. Weeks of endless waiting had just ended. Just like that.

"How..." I pulled back just enough to look at her face, searching it for answers. "When... did you do this?"

She laughed, wiping quickly at her own eyes. "Well... babe and..." She glanced past my shoulder, toward Ren.

I followed her gaze. Ren stood a few feet away near the door, his arms folded loosely over his chest, watching the two of us with an expression trying very hard to look unaffected and failing completely.

I stared at him, confused all over again. "You?"

Neve nodded, grinning. "We all called in a few favours. The lawyers he knows here in London, plus the ones back home, plus a judge who apparently owed somebody a very large debt." She shrugged like it was nothing at all. "Here we are."

I turned fully toward Ren, still holding the papers pressed against my chest like they might disappear if I let go. "You did this?"

"We did it," he said simply, but his eyes were steady on mine, warm underneath all that usual guarded calm.

I didn’t think. I just moved, crossing the room and wrapping my arms tightly around him.

He stiffened for half a second, clearly caught off guard, before his arms came around me properly, one hand settling against the back of my head.

"Thank you," I whispered into his chest, my voice cracking. "Thank you so much, Ren."

He nodded against the top of my head, quiet, like it hadn’t cost him anything at all, even though I knew better by now. Nothing Ren did was ever nothing.

I pulled back and turned to Neve, wiping my face with the back of my hand, laughing a little through the tears. "You should thank your boyfriend too. Where is he?"

"He went to go meet up with some of the people who helped push it through," Neve said. "Said he’d be back soon. Didn’t want to miss the look on your face, apparently, but someone had to go say thank you properly."

I shook my head, still hardly able to believe it. After everything, after months of pain, I was actually, legally free.

A small, sleepy voice broke through the quiet of the room.

"Aunt Mama?"

We all turned at once. Theo was blinking up at us from his pillow, his little brow furrowed in that serious way he got whenever he sensed something important happening around him, even half asleep.

"Hey, baby," I said, my voice still thick with tears as I hurried to his bedside, papers still clutched in one hand. "Guess what?"

"What?" he mumbled, rubbing his eyes with the back of his small fist.

"You’re mine now," I said softly, leaning down to press a kiss to his forehead. "Properly, legally, forever mine. No more waiting."

He didn’t fully understand the weight of it, but he smiled anyway, the way children do when they can feel that something good has happened even without knowing exactly what.

"Forever mine," he repeated sleepily, and I laughed through fresh tears, smoothing his hair back.

It was another twenty minutes before the door opened again and Neve’s boyfriend walked in, still buttoning his jacket, looking pleased with himself in that quiet, understated way he always did.

"There she is," he said, nodding toward me with a small smile. "I take it the surprise landed."

"You have no idea," I said, crossing the room to hug him too, tight and grateful. "Thank you. Truly."

"Don’t thank me," he said, patting my back gently. "Thank the man who made three international calls."

I glanced over my shoulder at Ren, who rolled his eyes slightly, clearly uncomfortable with all the credit being thrown his way.

By the time the excitement settled and Theo had drifted back to sleep, exhaustion had crept back into everyone’s faces, thick and undeniable. I looked between Neve and her boyfriend, both of them swaying slightly on their feet.

"You two should go rest," I said firmly. "I’ll stay with Theo tonight."

Neve hesitated, glancing at the bed, then at me. "Are you sure? I can stay if..."

"Go," I said, softer now, squeezing her hand. "You’ve done more than enough. Let me have this one."

She finally nodded, too tired to argue further, and let her boyfriend guide her toward the door with a hand at her back.

She paused just before leaving, looking between me and Ren with something unreadable flickering across her face, but she said nothing. The door clicked shut behind them.

I turned, expecting Ren to follow. He hadn’t moved.

I frowned slightly. "You should go rest too, Ren. You’ve done so much today."

"I’ll stay," he said simply, pulling the armchair a little closer to the wall, settling into it like the matter was already decided. "In case you need anything."

"Ren, you don’t have to..."

"I know I don’t," he said, looking up at me, his voice low and steady. "I want to."

I didn’t argue further. Truthfully, I didn’t want to.

The room fell quiet after that, lit only by the soft glow of the bedside lamp and the gentle hum of the monitors. I sat in the chair across from him, Theo’s small hand tucked loosely in mine, and for a long while neither of us spoke.

But the silence wasn’t empty. It was full, heavy in a different way than before, charged with something neither of us said out loud.

Every so often, I’d glance up and catch him already looking at me, and he wouldn’t look away first.

My heart would stutter, then race, and I’d have to look back down at Theo just to steady myself.

A few times, our eyes met at the exact same moment, and something passed between us that felt far too loud for such a quiet room.

Around midnight, he got up to refill my water without me asking. His fingers brushed mine when he handed it over, lingering just half a second too long, and neither of us mentioned it.

Near two in the morning, I caught him watching me while I hummed something soft to Theo, who had stirred briefly in his sleep.

When I looked up, Ren didn’t glance away like he usually might have. He just held my gaze, something unguarded and warm sitting openly in his eyes, until my own breath caught and I had to look back down at my son just to remember how to breathe properly.

Neither of us slept much. But somehow, sitting there in that quiet hospital room, watching each other across the small space between us, felt like its own kind of rest.

By morning, pale light was creeping in through the blinds when Neve and her boyfriend returned, both looking considerably more refreshed, carrying coffee and a small bag of pastries.

"Alright," Neve said, setting the bag down and giving me a pointed look. "Go get ready. You’ve got a signature to collect in person, and I want you looking like the woman who just won."

I glanced at Ren, and he was already standing, shrugging his jacket back over his shoulders.

"I’ll take her," he said, before I could even offer to go alone.

An hour later, showered and dressed in something sharp and deliberate, I sat beside Ren in the back of the car as it pulled up outside Callum’s office building. The glass tower gleamed under the grey morning sky, cold and familiar in a way that used to make my stomach twist. It didn’t twist anymore.

Ren’s hand found mine as we walked through the lobby, steady and sure, and I let it stay there the whole way up.

When the office door opened and Callum looked up from his desk, his face already twisting into something bitter, I didn’t wait for him to speak first.

I stepped forward, papers in hand, and set them down firmly on his desk.

"It’s time to end this. Forever."