Chris hesitated, glancing at the bracelet. “For me. For us.”

“We’re engaged,” he said softly, touching the bracelet. “He gave me this when I proposed. Said it was the most precious thing he had.”

The weight of those words crushed her. Memories of Aaron’s hesitations, his evasions, rushed back. He had been afraid.

“All those times,” she whispered, “he started to tell me something, then stopped. Was he trying to…?”

Chris nodded gently. “He tried, but the words wouldn’t come. He was scared.”

Tears blurred Elena’s vision. “I didn’t know,” she whispered. “I never knew.”

Chris’s eyes softened. “He loves you. He keeps your photo in his wallet—the one of you holding him on his first birthday.”

Elena’s heart tightened. “Please, tell me where he is. I need to tell him I love him, no matter what.”

Chris sighed and scribbled an address on a receipt. “He’s scared, but maybe this will help him too.”

Elena clutched the address, standing outside a modest brick building. What if he didn’t want to see her? Before she could second-guess, the door opened.

There he stood. His hair longer, his face thinner, but those eyes—those familiar brown eyes—were the same.

“Mom?”

“You kept the photo,” she blurted, remembering Chris’s words.

Aaron’s hand went to his back pocket. “How did you…?”

“Chris,” Elena said softly. “He told me everything.”

“Aaron,” she choked on his name. “Or Adam. I don’t care. I just need you to know I love you. Always.”

He blinked, his face crumpling. “You don’t care?”

“I care that you’re alive, that you’re safe. I don’t care who you love or where you’ve been. I just want my son back.”

“But I’m different now,” he whispered. “I’m not who you wanted me to be.”

“You’re exactly who you’re supposed to be. I’m sorry if I ever made you feel you couldn’t tell me.”

For a moment, he stood frozen. Then he threw his arms around her, sobbing, “I was so scared.”

“No, baby,” she whispered. “I’m sorry you carried that fear alone.”

The next morning, they sat at the kitchen table, Aaron’s hand clasped in Chris’s. They looked happy, at peace.

Chris squeezed Aaron’s hand. “I think I already know what I’m getting into,” he said, glancing at Elena. “And who I’m getting as a mother-in-law.”

Elena smiled, the bracelet back on Aaron’s wrist, glinting in the sunlight.

“You’re still one in a million,” she said softly.

“So are you, Mom,” Aaron replied.

“We have so much to catch up on,” she said, wiping a tear.

“We have time,” he said gently. “All the time in the world.”

And for the first time in two years, Elena believed it.