Chapter 7 - Her Maybe Family
One year after Mia walked into the executive hallway, Adrian asked us to meet him there again.
“Why are we at Mommy's office?” Mia asked.
“Business meeting,” Adrian said.
She nodded seriously.
“Okay.”
The same hallway was busy with employees.
Some of them had witnessed the original disaster.
Jenna was openly filming from twenty feet away.
I pointed at her.
“Put that phone down.”
“No.”
Adrian stopped at the exact spot where Mia had first approached him.
Then he crouched.
“Mia.”
“Yes?”
“Do you remember what you asked me here?”
She grinned.
“I said you were handsome.”
“And?”
“I asked you to be my daddy.”
“Correct.”
He took a small box from his pocket.
My heart stopped.
But he didn't open it.
Instead, he handed it to Mia.
She looked confused.
“What's this?”
“A question.”
She opened the box.
Inside was a small silver necklace with three linked circles.
“You once drew three people and called them your maybe family.”
Mia looked at him.
Adrian's voice became quieter.
“I don't want to replace your father. Ever. He will always be your dad.”
Mia listened carefully.
“But if you want me, I'd like to be another person who shows up for you. School dances. Bad days. Pancakes. Everything.”
Her eyes filled.
“So you're saying yes?”
He smiled.
“If you'll still have me.”
She launched herself into his arms.
“Yes!”
Everyone in the hallway applauded.
I covered my mouth.
Then Mia pulled back.
“Wait.”
Adrian frowned.
“What?”
“You forgot Mommy.”
He looked toward me.
“I was getting there.”
He stood and walked toward me.
“Claire Bennett.”
“Adrian Kane.”
“The first time your daughter proposed to me, you looked like you wanted the building to swallow you.”
“I did.”
“The second time, I'd like to do this properly.”
He lowered himself onto one knee.
This time, nobody laughed.
He opened another box.
A ring.
“Before you and Mia, I thought having everything meant needing no one.”
His eyes stayed on mine.
“I was wrong.”
Mia whispered loudly, “Say yes.”
Everyone laughed.
Adrian smiled.
“Claire, will you marry me?”
I stared at the intimidating billionaire who once frightened entire boardrooms.
The man who had eaten dinosaur pancakes at my kitchen table.
The man who showed up for a six-year-old's school dance.
The man who never tried to erase Daniel, but simply made room beside his memory.
“Yes.”
Mia screamed.
Adrian stood and kissed me.
The hallway erupted.
Six months later, we married in a small ceremony overlooking Central Park.
Mia wore yellow.
Richard Kane sat in the front row.
And when the officiant asked who had brought our family together, Mia raised her hand.
“I did.”
Everyone laughed.
“You're welcome,” she added.
At the reception, Adrian lifted her into his arms.
“So,” he asked, “how am I doing?”
“As what?”
“My job.”
She pretended to think.
“Daddy?”
He nodded.
“Pretty good.”
“Pretty good?”
“You still can't dance.”
He laughed.
I watched them from across the room.
Years earlier, I had believed surviving alone made me strong.
Adrian had believed needing nobody made him powerful.
A six-year-old understood something neither of us did.
Everybody needs somebody.
Mia rested her head against Adrian's shoulder.
Then she looked at me and smiled.
Her drawing had been wrong about only one thing.
May you like
We weren't a maybe family anymore.
We were simply family.
