Choosing to stay

The proposal

Stephanie went completely still. Her hand tightened around his, but she did not try to stop him when he stepped toward the hallway.

“Richie,” she said again, softer this time, like she already knew and was afraid to trust it.

He did not answer yet. If he opened his mouth too soon, he was afraid everything would come out in the wrong order. Instead, he crossed to the entryway, shifted Amelia carefully against his chest, and reached into the side pocket of his gym bag.

The ring box fit into his palm like a secret that had finally become too heavy to carry alone.

When he turned back, Stephanie had one hand pressed over her mouth. Tears had already gathered in her eyes.

“Oh,” she whispered.

Richard smiled shakily. “Yeah. Oh.”

He looked down at Amelia, still tucked against him, and let out a breath that almost became a laugh. “I had a plan, you know. A better one. There was supposed to be dinner somewhere nice, maybe flowers, probably fewer relatives making dramatic exits.”

Stephanie gave a watery laugh, and it nearly undid him.

“But then I came home,” he continued, “and Amelia wouldn’t sleep unless someone held her, and Kyle said all the wrong things, and you stood there trying to be brave while everyone asked you to doubt what feels right to me.”

His throat tightened. He had to pause before he could go on.

“And I realised I don’t want perfect. I want the real version—the tired, messy version where I’m holding our daughter and asking the woman I love to let me keep choosing her every day.”

Stephanie’s face crumpled at our daughter.

Richard lowered himself carefully, not quite onto one knee because Amelia was still asleep against him and he refused to risk waking her, but close enough that Stephanie made a broken little sound.

He opened the box.

The ring caught the soft apartment light, small and bright and impossibly steady.

“Stephanie,” he said, her name rough with everything he had held back. “You were my best friend before I knew how to call it love. You came back into my life, and somehow it felt like losing time and finding home at once. I love the way you love Amelia, the way you fight for people, and the way you stand here with me even when you’re scared.”

A tear slipped down Stephanie’s cheek. This time, she did not wipe it away.

“I can’t promise easy,” he said. “But I can promise honest. I can promise steady. When life gets loud, I will not make you stand in it alone. I want Amelia’s first words, bad nights, birthdays, and school mornings. I want your laughter in the kitchen and your hand in mine when things are hard. I want to be your family, Steph—not for now. For always.”

He drew in a breath that shook.

“Will you marry me?”

For half a second, Stephanie only stared at him. Then she laughed through a sob and nodded so hard he thought she might lose her balance.

“Yes,” she said. “Yes, Richie. Of course, yes.”

The relief hit him so hard he almost forgot how to move.

Stephanie came to him first, kneeling just enough to wrap her arms around his neck without crushing Amelia between them. Richard laughed into her shoulder, breathless and shaky, and held them both as best he could.

Amelia chose that exact moment to stir. Her face scrunched. One tiny fist waved in protest.

Stephanie pulled back, laughing and crying at once. “She has opinions.”

“She gets that from you.”

“Put the ring on me before I change my mind about saying yes in front of such disrespect.”

Richard grinned, hands still unsteady as he slipped the ring onto her finger. It fit like it had been waiting for her.

Stephanie stared at it for a long moment. Then she looked at him with wonder, fear, joy, and something deeper than all of it.

“We’re really doing this,” she whispered.

Richard pressed his forehead to hers, Amelia tucked between them like the smallest witness.

“Yeah,” he said. “We are.”