Chapter 10 - THE THREE-HEARTBEAT PROMISE
Two years later,
the airport was a different place.
We were standing in Terminal C again,
but this time,
we were leaving for a vacation together.
Lily,
Noah,
and Sophie were older now,
chattering about the plane and the beach.
Graham was carrying two of the suitcases,
while I held the youngest’s hand.
He stopped at the exact spot where his phone had shattered.
He looked down at the floor and then at me.
“I hated this place for a long time,”
he said.
“It was the place where I realized how much I had lost.”
“But now,”
I said,
leaning my head on his shoulder,
“it’s the place where we started over.”
He kissed the top of my head.
The news had recently done a follow-up story on the “Whitaker Rebirth.”
They talked about his charity work and his focus on family-first corporate policies.
But we didn't care about the news.
We cared about the fact that Noah was trying to ride on his suitcase.
And that Lily was sharing her crackers with her sister.
And that Graham’s phone was safely in his pocket,
unbroken.
As we walked toward the gate,
I felt a familiar flutter in my stomach.
I leaned in and whispered into Graham’s ear.
He stopped in his tracks,
his eyes widening just like they had that day at the airport.
“Again?”
he gasped,
a huge,
joyful grin breaking across his face.
“Just one this time,”
I laughed.
He picked me up and spun me around,
oblivious to the travelers around us.
The three triplets cheered,
jumping up and down.
We weren't the perfect golden couple from the gala anymore.
We were something better.
We were a family that had survived the storm.
And as we boarded the plane,
I knew that this time,
we were all flying together.
The past was a ghost,
but the future was a promise,
May you like
written in the three heartbeats that had saved us both.
And the one more that was just beginning.
