The resort was quiet at night, the pool lights casting ripples of turquoise across the walls of the private villa. Simon and Claire lay tangled together in a hammock on the patio, swaying gently in the warm ocean breeze. Claire’s head rested on his chest, her fingers drawing soft lines over his collarbone, while Simon lazily traced patterns along her spine beneath the oversized T-shirt she had stolen from him.

It felt like a stolen moment — the kind they used to have all the time before life, work, and five children swallowed every second whole.

Especially the last two.

You and Ryat had altered everything. The surprise twins. The result of a moment of laughter and relief the night Simon finally stepped off that plane after twelve months away. Their late-in-life curveball.

Your older siblings were long gone now — 20, 19, and 18 — off building lives full of freedom and choices. But you and Kaidence were still around. Still attached at the hip. Still convinced your parents wanted you everywhere they went.

Even on the one vacation Simon and Claire had specifically booked to “celebrate alone time.”

Claire laughed under her breath, eyes closed as she savored the quiet. “You know… this is the first time I’ve heard you breathe without a kid’s name attached.”

Simon smirked, brushing a kiss into her hair. “Don’t jinx it.”

For a blissful moment, it felt like the world belonged only to them — the ocean, the stars, the subtle creak of the hammock ropes. They could almost forget that two kids, restless and nosey, were just on the other side of the sliding glass doors.

Almost.

The sound of a cabinet opening inside the villa made Claire’s eyes snap open. Simon froze, shoulders tensing.

“That better not be them,” he muttered, already preparing to sit up.

A beat. Silence. Hope.