Anna buried her face into his chest, her tears soaking through his shirt, and for the first time she didn't care.
The last time she had cried like this was the day she lost her child.
That day, the world had gone silent. Empty. She had been left alone again, carrying a grief no one saw and a love she never got to give.
She had wanted that child so fiercely. Had been ready to pour every ounce of love she had into them, to make sure they never felt unwanted, never felt invisible. She had been prepared to give them both parents' love, even if the world had given her none.
And now, standing at the edge of another truth, she realized something that shattered her all over again.
She wasn't who she had always believed herself to be.
The identity she had built, the place she thought she held—it had all been an illusion.
Daniel tightened his hold, his jaw clenched as he pressed a kiss into her hair. "Listen to me," he said softly but firmly. "You have a place. You have always had one."
