My Love Until the Last Goodbye (Mary and Maximus) novel Chapter 829

"I was thinking we could grab some vanilla ice cream and sit somewhere to talk. Sound good?"

"Perfect."

We stopped by an ice cream shop and bought a liter each.

As expected, she devoured hers.

I watched her for a moment before taking a deep breath.

"Mary… there’s something I want to talk to you about."

She looked up, concerned. "What is it?"

"I know we’re getting married soon, and Serene will have my last name. But I’ve been thinking a lot about what I proposed to you…"

"What do you mean?"

"About being Serenity’s father."

She froze, her face unreadable. "Are you… backing out?"

"No! How could you even think that?"

"Then why bring it up?"

I hesitated. "Because today, I had a terrible nightmare…"

"What did you dream?"

"That I died."

She gasped. "What?!"

"Yeah… It felt so real. Everything about it—it was like living a normal day, but it ended with me dying. It left me with this awful feeling, Mary. That’s why I needed to talk to you."

"You’re scaring me, Peter…"

"I’m more scared than you are."

"Why?"

"Because if something happens to me, you and Serenity are my responsibility. Do you really think I could just leave you two behind like that?"

"But it was just a nightmare."

"Maybe… But it felt real."

I sighed, running a hand through my hair.

"Mary, this has been weighing on me all day. If I ever died… I’d want you to move on. I’d want you to keep living, to surround yourself with people who love you. I wouldn’t want you to be alone. I wouldn’t want you to stay alone."

She swallowed hard, her grip tightening around her cup.

"I’d want you to grow, to reach your goals, to live your life to the fullest. And now that we know we’re having a girl, we need to make sure that every choice we make is to help her become strong—strong enough to go after whatever she wants in life."

I hesitated, then added carefully,

"And for that… we have to be honest. We can’t hide the truth about Serenity’s father."

"No! You’re crazy! That would mean Maximus has to find out, and I don’t want that!"

"Mary… He deserves to know. When our daughter is born, she needs to know who her real father is. You can’t take that right away from her."

"But you were the one who didn’t want him involved!"