Justin had never seen himself as the settling type. Traditions were for people with happier childhoods, not boys raised on fear and slammed doors. But something about Lucy—the way she dreamed out loud, the way she believed in more—made him start to imagine what a different future might look like.
He found himself craving what he once mocked: family dinners, bedtime stories, tiny shoes by the door. He didn’t want to become his father; he wanted to undo him. And the clearest way to do that, he thought, was by raising a boy—his boy—with patience, love, and pride.