Chapter 10 - NO MORE RUNNING
A month later, the Chicago winter had given way to a crisp, bright spring.
Hannah stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows of Ethan’s Gold Coast penthouse, looking out over Lake Michigan. The scars on her abdomen were healing. The hollows in her cheeks had filled out. She wore a soft cashmere sweater—not from a thrift store, but a gift from Ethan—that smelled faintly of his cologne.
She turned as the door to the nursery opened. Ethan walked out, looking exhausted but deeply, profoundly happy. He had a burp cloth thrown over his shoulder and a sleeping Maya cradled in his left arm.
"Leo finally went down," Ethan whispered, walking over to her. He pressed a kiss to Hannah’s temple. "He has your stubbornness. Fought sleep for an hour."
Hannah smiled, leaning into his warmth. "He has your temper, you mean. He screams exactly like you do when the scrub nurses hand you the wrong scalpel."
Ethan chuckled quietly, looking down at his sleeping daughter. "They come home, and the penthouse suddenly feels too small. We should look at houses in the suburbs. Somewhere with a yard. A big oak tree for a swing."
Hannah looked at him, her heart swelling until it felt like it might break her ribs. Five years of terror, of running, of freezing in cheap apartments, had vanished like a bad dream.
"Are you sure?" she asked softly. "You’ve always been a city guy, Dr. Caldwell."
Ethan turned, shifting Maya slightly so he could wrap his free arm around Hannah’s waist, pulling her flush against him. "I’m a wherever-you-are guy, Hannah. I always have been. It just took me five years and a miracle to get back to you."
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He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small velvet box. He didn't drop to one knee—he had a baby in his arms, after all—but he flipped it open with his thumb. Inside sat a simple, devastatingly beautiful diamond ring.
"No more running," Ethan said, looking deeply into her eyes. "Marry me. Let me spend the rest of my life making up for the time we lost."
