Amy woke first, cocooned in warmth, Jace's arm firm around her waist as though even in his sleep refused to let her go.
She shifted slightly, and he stirred.
"Good morning, wife to be," Jace murmured, his voice still heavy with sleep.
Amy smiled before she even opened her eyes. "You're enjoying that a little too much."
He tightened his hold and pressed his lips into her hair. "I waited long enough to say it."
She turned to face him, her cheek resting against his chest. He reached for her hand instinctively, lifting it between them. The ring caught the light, it was soft and perfect.
"It looks so beautiful on you," he said quietly.
Amy smiled. "I still can't believe this happened. Everything just… moved so fast."
Jace leaned down, resting his forehead against hers. "I never doubted it. Not once. I knew I was going to spend the rest of my life with you."
She laughed softly and nudged his shoulder. "Don't be all cringey this early in the morning."
He chuckled, the sound low and warm, and kissed her gently, unhurried, certain.
Eventually, Jace slipped out of bed, stretching as he stood. Amy watched him lazily.
"Any plans for the day?" she asked.
"Just a little work," he said, pulling on a sweater. "I want to put something together."
She nodded, half-smiling. "Good luck."
She stood from the bed and joined him in the bathroom as they brushed their teeth side by side, bumping elbows, exchanging sweet glances in the mirror. When Jace headed into the bathroom to shower, Amy leaned against the doorframe.
"You're not going to spend all morning out there, are you?" she teased.
He laughed from behind the curtain. "I'ts just a little work babe, I know you're obsessed with me" He replied grinning.
Amy laughed from the doorframe. "I mean you're going to be my husband, that's the least I can do"
"Just that?" He said as he perked his head out of the curtain. "Why don't you come join me in here and show me more things you can do" He said winking.
"I don't want to be a distraction, you'll have me all to yourself when you get back.....i think that should keep you on your toes and make you come back faster" She said smirking as she leaned in to kiss him. It was a hot, passionate kiss. Jace didn't want to let her go. He sucked in some air when she drew back.
"Fuck!, Amethyst, you'd be the death of me" He said under his breathe as she laughs walking backwards into the room.
"Hurry up Prescott" She smiled.
When he finished bathing and dressing, they stood close again, arms wrapped around each other, reluctant to part. He kissed her once more before pulling away.
"Take care of yourself," Amy said softly.
"I always do," he replied, brushing his thumb along her cheek. "Especially now."
She smiled back as he left the door.
.....
Later that afternoon, snow falling outside, slow and almost as if it'd go away soon. Amy sat curled into the corner of the living room couch, her legs tucked beneath her, she was writing something on the book Rebecca gave her. She smiled as she turned a new page. Her fingers drifted absently to her left hand.
The ring still felt unreal,cool metal, solid promise. She smiled to herself, heart full, thoughts drifting back to Jace's voice that morning, to the way he'd said wife-to-be like it was already written into the world.
The front door opened quietly.
She looked up as Mr. Reyes, the driver stepped inside, his posture as composed as ever, his presence filling the room with that familiar, formal calm.
"Miss Amy," he said politely, inclining his head. "Mr. Prescott would like to see you."
Her heart lifted instantly, warmth blooming in her chest. "Jace?" she asked, already setting the book aside.
"Yes, ma'am. The car is waiting."
She didn't question it. Why would she? Jace had been secretive all morning, slipping out with that faint smile he wore when he was planning something meaningful. A surprise lunch, maybe. Something small and thoughtful. Something only him would think of.
"I'll be right there," she said, standing. Elizabeth had gone upstairs to sleep so she didn't want to bother her.
Amy took her time dressing,more than necessary. A soft sweater, her favorite coat, a scarf she knew Jace liked because he'd once said it made her eyes beautiful. She checked her reflection twice, smoothing her hair, tucking a loose strand behind her ear.
When she stepped outside, the cold bit gently at her cheeks. The drive was a little hurried because after some minute, Mr Reyes pulled over in front of a classy restaurant.
The restaurant was tucked away from the main street. It looked like something straight out of a movie. Warm blue light glowed through the window.. Mr. Reyes escorted her inside and led her to a table near the window.
"He'll be with you shortly," the driver said.
Amy nodded, smiling. "Thank you."
She sat, hands folded neatly in her lap, eyes flicking to the door every time it opened. She imagined Jace walking in, that familiar grin breaking across his face, maybe a nervous energy in his step. She imagined teasing him for being dramatic.
Minutes passed. But no sign of him.
She reached for her phone, then stopped herself. Don't ruin it, she thought. Let him have this.
Then she sensed movement in front her.
Footsteps. Measured. Heavy in a way she didn't recognize.
She looked up.
The smile faded from her lips.
It wasn't the Prescott She was expecting. It wasn't Jace.
James Prescott stood there instead, tall and immaculately dressed, his expression carefully neutral but his eyes were far too intent.
For a moment, Amy simply stared. Then she stood abruptly, chair scraping softly against the floor. "Oh....I'm so sorry,Mr Prescott" she said quickly, reaching for her bag. "I think there's been a mistake. I'm waiting for someone."
James stopped just short of the table. "You're waiting for my son."
Her throat tightened. "Yes. Jace."
He nodded once. "I know."
Her pulse began to race. She had never really been comfortable around him so this was definitely awkward. "Then I must be at the wrong table. I didn't realize....."
"There's no mistake," he said gently, but firmly. "I asked you here."
She froze.
Confusion washed over her, uneasiness slipping quietly through her ribs. "I don't understand," she said. "The driver said....."
"I didn't specify," James interrupted. His voice remained calm, almost practiced. "Please. Sit, Amy."
She hesitated, fingers tightening around the strap of her bag. "I really should go."
"Amy." He lowered his voice. "I wouldn't ask if it weren't important."
There was something in his tone, she didn't know whether it was helplessness or nervousness. She could'nt decide but it made her pause. Slowly, reluctantly, she sat back down. Her movements felt careful and guarded now.
James took the seat across from hermnt, folding his hands on the table as though bracing himself.
There was silence between them which made Amy feel very uncomfortable.
Finally, she spoke. "Why didn't you tell me it was you?" she asked, her voice steady but quiet. "Why go through the driver?"
He studied her for a long moment before answering.
"Tell me something," he said. "If I had come to you myself, if I had asked to speak with you directly...would you have agreed?"
Her lips parted.
No answer came.
Her silence said enough.
James exhaled slowly, nodding once. "Exactly," he said. "That's why."
A chill crept up her spine.
"This feels manipulative," she said softly.
"I won't deny that," he replied. "But I needed you here. And I needed you to listen."
Amy's fingers curled inward, resting against the edge of the table. "About what?"
James leaned back slightly, his gaze unwavering now. "About my son," he said. "And about the future you're walking into."
Her heart thudded painfully against her chest.
The ring on her finger suddenly felt heavier.
"What are you saying?" she asked.
James paused just long enough to make the moment unbearable.
James's gaze drifted, briefly, to her left hand. Then he spoke. "I see you're now officially going to be a member of the family," he said. "Congratulations."
The words were correct. The warmth was not.
Amy's shoulders tightened. She gave a polite nod, nothing more.
James studied her for a moment longer, then looked away, as though something in her restraint had unsettled him.
"I imagine Jace planned it carefully," he added. "He always does when something matters to him."
She didn't respond this time either.
James exhaled, slow and deliberate, and when he spoke again.
"I owe you an apology," he said.
Her eyes lifted, surprised.
"The first time you came to Virginia," he continued, hands folding together more tightly than before, "I was… dismissive. I told myself I was being practical. Reserved. But that wasn't the truth."
He paused, jaw tightening.
"The truth is, I didn't want to see you."
Amy's fingers curled slightly in her lap.
"I didn't want to see how much he loved you," James said. "Because once I saw that, I would have to acknowledge what I already knew....that he was building a life I wasn't going to be a part of. And that was… easier to ignore than to accept."
He shook his head once, quietly.
"That was unfair to you. And cowardly of me."
The word seemed to cost him.
"I see now," he went on, "that my son loves you deeply. Not carelessly. Not impulsively. He loves you with intention. And if I am to support him at all...if I am to call myself his father in any meaningful sense then I must support that."
His gaze returned to her, steadier now, stripped of pretense.
"There is malice between Jace and me," he said. "And I find it disheartening. More than that, I find it very shameful." He swallowed.
"I am his father. And yet here I am, about asking someone outside our family.....no offense intended.....to help mend something I broke."
Amy shook her head slightly. "None taken."
"I never learned how to repair what I damaged," James admitted. "I learned how to endure. To move forward. To stay occupied. But Jace…" His voice faltered. "Jace needed something else from me. Something I didn't know how to give."
He leaned back, weariness creeping into his posture.
"He wanted me to acknowledge i was careless and withdrawn from the family and I haven't gotten the nerve to admit it"
"I don't like the distance between us," he said quietly. "I don't like that we can sit in the same room and feel like adversaries. And I don't want that to be the inheritance he carries into his marriage."
His eyes flicked again to her ring,this time without dismissal.
"You have a way of softening him," James said. "He listens when you speak. He tries when you ask. And I see now that that should have been the kind of father and husband I was supposed to be"."
He paused, the silence no longer guarded, but exposed.
"I am not asking you to choose sides," he said. "And I am not asking you to fix what I should have fixed long ago."
Then, quietly. "I am asking you not to give up on him where I failed to show up."
The words hung between them, fragile and honest.
"I want to do better," James said at last. "I don't yet know how. But I want to."
He nodded once, as though sealing something internal.
"That is all I wanted to say."
Amy didn't speak right away.
She studied him then, not as Jace's father, not as the composed man who filled rooms with authority but as someone smaller than he appeared, someone eaten by pain more than he let's on.
"You've been carrying this a long time," she said softly.
James's jaw tightened. "Longer than I should have."
Her gaze drifted to the window, to the snow falling unbroken lines. "Jace told me about Emma," she said. "Not all at once. He never talks about her all at once."
James leaned back into his seat.
"She was light," Amy continued carefully. "That's the word he uses. Like she made things brighter just by being in the room."
James's hand curled against the edge of the table.
"She did," he said. His voice was quieter now. Unprotected. "And I missed more of that than I will ever forgive myself for."
Amy's chest tightened.
"I was working," he went on, the confession spilling now, inevitable. "Always working. I told myself I was providing. That there would be time later. And then later never came, if i could turn back the hands of time, I swear I would have done it differently."
He swallowed hard.
"When she died, Jace blamed me," James said. "And he wasn't wrong. Not entirely. I see that now."
Amy shook her head gently. "Grief doesn't belong to one person," she said. "It just… looks for somewhere to land."
James closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them, they were glassy like tears would fall out soon.
"I didn't know how to face it," he admitted. "Emma's death. Jace's anger. My own failure. So I became distant. I let the space grow because it felt safer than standing inside the damage I'd caused."
Amy leaned forward slightly, her voice warm but firm. "He didn't need you to be perfect," she said. "He needed you to stay."
The words struck deep. James looked away, breathing carefully.
"I loved her," he said. "God help me, I loved her. She was my first first daughter. She made me experience being a girl dad for the first time. And every day I wake up knowing that love wasn't enough to save her."
Amy reached across the table then, not touching him, but close enough that the intent was clear.
"She mattered," Amy said. "And the way you still carry her means she still does."
James nodded once, a sharp movement, as though acknowledging something he rarely allowed himself to accept.
"I am sorry," he said again, and this time it wasn't about politeness or decorum. It was about Emma. About Jace. About everything he hadn't said soon enough.
Amy felt it then, the ache beneath his restraint, the remorse that had shaped every hard edge of him.
"I don't think you're asking me to fix anything," she said quietly. "I think you're asking for permission to try again."
James looked at her, something vulnerable flickering across his face.
"I don't know what it all is but I know I want my son back, I don't want to let the past repeat itself"
Amy nodded, her eyes warm.
"Then don't waste it," she said. "He's still here. And so are you, make good use of it. This feud has escalated way too much and honestly I don't like the tension present when you two are in a room together. The first time I came to Virginia was the first time I saw Jace angry, he'd always been this bigger person teaching people how to be better but he let his guard down that day"
For the first time since he'd sat down, James allowed himself a breath that wasn't controlled.
"So pls, do what you have to do, take the first step and hopefully he'd reciprocate positively"
"Thank you," he said.
And Amy realized, with a soft, aching clarity, that beneath all the distance and damage, this was simply a man who had loved his children deeply and learned too late how to say it.
James glanced toward his watch, then back at Amy.
"I won't keep you any longer," he said. "Jace will be wondering."
"Yes," Amy replied, rising slowly. "He will."
They stood at the same time, the space between them feeling different now,less rigid, less formal.
James reached for his coat, then hesitated, as if reconsidering something. When he spoke again, his voice was quieter.
"He doesn't know about this," he said. "And I don't intend to burden him with it."
Amy nodded. "I understand."
"I would prefer," he added, "that what I attempt next with my son be… mine to do."
"That's fair," she said gently. "But don't blame me if try some things too""
His lips curved faintly at that. "I won't."
They walked toward the door together. The restaurant had thinned, lunch hour long past, the room softened by clinking glasses and low voices.
At the entrance, James paused.
"Thank you," he said again. "For your patience. And your honesty."
Amy met his gaze. "Thank you for trusting me with it."
Outside, the cold greeted them sharply. Snow continued to fall, light and unhurried. The car stopped at the curb.
James opened the door for her.
As she stepped forward, she stopped, just briefly."For what it's worth," she said, "I love your son. Completely."
James smiled nodding.
"And I intend to do what's best for him," she continued. "Even if it means doing it quietly. Even if it means going around him instead of through him."
Something unreadable crossed James's face.
"I suspected as much," he said softly.
She smiled, small but certain. "He's worth the trouble."
James inclined his head, respect clear now, stripped of formality.
"Yes," he said. "He is."
Amy nodded and smiled at him as he closed the car door for her and he stood there till the car went out of sight.