Darius smirked. "I'll warn him to get a burner if he ever takes a mistress." Darius encircled me in the elevator, and, while kissing me, retrieved my diary from my bag. Holding me to his chest, he lifted it behind my head and opened it.
"Dare!" I smacked his chest. "Don't you dare."
Darius frowned. "You're right, I don't want to read it," he muttered.
"What page did you open at?"
"He's never going to forgive me for hiding this from him, I'll never forgive myself for being like her," he read. "But, I can't tell him. I've wanted to, every day since I found out. I've wanted to, but can't. I hate him so much, for what he did. I despise the air he breathes for saying those words to me. I loathe the ground he walks upon for walking away from me." Darius took a breath, tears swimming in his eyes. "I love him so much more, still, and I hate him for making me love him that much," Darius breathed the last.
"Oh," I whispered, swiping the tears from my cheeks. I took the diary back and placed it in my bag. "I never thought you would forgive me, Dare, especially not as easily as you did."
"I haven't forgiven you, Mora. You hid my son from me, you lied to me, and just when I was getting to know my son, you took him from me."
I felt my heart seize in my chest, the scars of the pain and distrust between us, tightening and constricting.
Darius brushed his thumb over my cheek. "I love you, Mora. More importantly, I know you love me. Everything you've done, I know you did out of love, not from your need to be loved. That is why we can move past this, Mora. Forgiveness will come, not just from me, but from you because I know you haven't truly forgiven me, or trust me for abandoning you either." Darius pulled me closer. "So we'll love first, forgive later."
I looked up into Darius's hazel eyes and knew he was right. I still worried he'd change his mind and leave again - possibly after getting me pregnant a third time. I needed to focus on us being a family and leaving not just our past, but my childhood, and the trust issues I have from that behind. If he could love me after all I'd done, that was enough.