Simon Riley sat alone in the quiet of the morning, the house unnervingly still. The wedding was today. His child—his child, though they had long since stopped needing him in the ways they once did—was getting married. Twenty years old and already stepping into a new life. He would be giving them away in just a few short hours, yet all he could think about was the day they first became his.

He still remembered the mission that changed everything. A routine extraction, or at least that’s what it was supposed to be. But then, in the chaos, there they were—small, scared, and clinging to life in a world that had shown them nothing but cruelty. Simon hadn’t thought twice. He’d brought them out of that nightmare and into his own fractured world. He hadn’t expected to love them so much. Certainly hadn’t expected to leave the Task Force to give them a life he knew they deserved. But here they were, years later, proof that he hadn’t failed completely.

He closed his eyes, letting his head rest in his hands. “Schoolbag in hand, they leave home in the early morning,” he murmured softly, recalling those years that seemed both distant and vivid at once. Mornings had been a blur of sleepy smiles and rushed breakfasts. He could still see them at the table, their hair messy, barely awake, as he nudged a bowl of cereal toward them. Barely awake, I let precious time go by. How often had he let the minutes slip away, telling himself there would always be more? And now… now there weren’t.

He stood and moved to the mantle, his eyes catching on a photo of the two of them. It was from one of their rare camping trips, taken by one of the others from the Task Force. Price had insisted on joining, calling it a “family outing,” and the phrase had stuck. They were all family, in one way or another, but this child… they were Simon’s whole world.