Phei stared at the place beneath his palm as the realization continued deepening. Somewhere there, hidden inside the woman he loved, a life had begun without asking the world for permission.
A tiny body would slowly take shape... a heart would form and begin beating.
...hands would grow, impossibly small hands with fingers that would one day curl around his own and call him daddy.
...eyes would open months from now and see light for the first time.
...a voice that had never existed anywhere across all the years behind them would someday laugh, cry, complain, call for them.
Someone completely new had entered existence.
The universe had possessed no version of this person before them.
And now it did.
Because they had loved each other.
Because they had come together.
Because somehow, from something as intimate and private as the two of them had been, life itself had answered.
Phei's throat worked.
