POV: Jasmine
The conversation with Liam stretched into the night—harder than any discussion we'd ever had.
We sat facing each other on the couch, knees almost touching, the space between us charged with everything about to change. The lamp cast shadows across his face, highlighting the tension in his jaw, the worry lines that had deepened over the past weeks.
"Just us?" His voice was careful, like he was handling something fragile. "What about Asher and Finn?"
"They're leaving. You heard them. London and Singapore." I swallowed hard against the ache in my throat. "And I... I think that might be right. For them. For us."
"Jasmine—"
"Listen to me." I grabbed his hands, forced him to meet my eyes. His fingers were warm, steady, the hands that had held me through every crisis since this started. "I love all three of you. That hasn't changed. But this—" I touched my stomach, felt the slight curve that was already beginning to show. "This changes everything. A baby needs stability, consistency. And I've been thinking about what kind of family I actually want to build."
The words hung between us, heavy with implication.
Liam's expression shifted—something between hope and heartbreak warring across his features. His grip tightened on my hands.
"You're choosing," he said slowly, each word landing like a stone in still water. "You're choosing me."
"I'm choosing what's best for our child. A child who happens to be biologically yours." I paused, steadied my breath. "If that means letting Asher and Finn find their own paths, maybe that's not abandonment. Maybe it's giving everyone permission to grow."
"Permission to grow." He pulled one hand free, ran it through his hair in that gesture I knew so well. The one that meant he was processing something too big for easy words. "You make it sound simple."
"It's not simple. Nothing about this has ever been simple."
"Then why does it feel like you've already decided?"
"Because I have." I held his gaze, refusing to look away. "I've spent my whole life reacting to other people's choices. Foster care, Leo's debt, Adelyn's sabotage—I survived by adapting, by making the best of whatever got thrown at me. But this?" I pressed my palm flat against my stomach. "This is the first time I get to choose what I'm building instead of just surviving what someone else destroyed."
Liam was quiet for a long time. The clock on the wall ticked through seconds that felt like hours. Outside, the city hummed with life that didn't care about the earthquake happening in this room.
"This wasn't supposed to be how it ended." His voice cracked on the last word. "The four of us—we were supposed to figure it out together."
"We did figure it out." I reached for his face, cupped his jaw, felt the stubble rough against my palm. "And the answer is that we all need different things now." I kissed him softly, tasting salt—his tears or mine, I couldn't tell anymore. "But you and me? We need each other. And this baby needs both of us."
"What about what I need?" The question came out raw. "What if I need my brothers? What if I need this family we built, all of it, even the messy parts?"
"Then you fight for it. Call them. Tell them what you told me about being guests in your life—and prove them wrong." I pulled back enough to see his face clearly. "But don't ask me to pretend that nothing has to change. Don't ask me to raise a child in chaos because we're all too scared to admit the truth."
"What truth?"
"That this was always going to narrow." The words hurt coming out, but they were true. "Four people, one relationship, one baby—something had to give. I'm not choosing to exclude Asher and Finn. I'm choosing to stop pretending we can all have everything we want without anyone making sacrifices."
Liam exhaled, a sound that carried the weight of every impossible decision we'd faced together. "And if they hate us for this? If they never forgive us for letting them go?"
"Then we live with that. We raise our child knowing we did what we thought was right, even when it was hard." I took his hands again, threaded our fingers together. "I'd rather make a choice I can defend than drift into something that destroys all of us."
The silence stretched again, but it was different now. Less brittle. More like the quiet after a storm passes.
"You really think they'll be okay?" Liam asked finally. "Out there, alone?"
"I think they'll be themselves for the first time in years. Not your brothers. Not part of the package deal. Just Asher. Just Finn." I smiled, though it wavered at the edges. "Maybe that's the gift we give them. Space to figure out who they are when they're not standing in your shadow."
"Asher's words."
Liam closed his eyes, and I watched the decision settle over him like armor clicking into place. When he opened them again, the golden retriever warmth was back—tempered now with something sharper. Something that looked like resolve.
"Okay. You and me. This baby. Whatever comes next." He kissed my forehead, my cheeks, the corner of my mouth. "I'm scared as hell, but I'm in. All the way."
The relief that flooded through me was staggering. I hadn't realized how much I'd been bracing for him to fight me, to insist we could make the impossible work through sheer stubborn optimism.
Instead, he was choosing reality. Choosing us.
"I'll give the interview with you," I said, the words coming easier now. "We'll tell our story—the truth about how we fell in love, about the family we're building. And we'll let Asher and Finn write their own endings."
Liam nodded slowly, pulling me against his chest until I could hear his heartbeat steady beneath my ear.
"Their own endings," he repeated softly. "I hope they find happy ones."
"They will." I closed my eyes, let his warmth surround me. "They're Blackwoods. You don't know how to do anything halfway."
His laugh was quiet, broken around the edges, but real.
And in that moment, holding each other in the wreckage of what we'd been, I finally believed we might survive what we were becoming.