Page 108 of Let Me In

Not loudly.

Not completely.

Just enough for his thumbs to catch it, brushing away the tears as they fall.

“I’m not here out of obligation, little one,” he adds, softer now. “I’m here because I want to be. Because you belong here.”

He presses my hand to his chest.

“I want you. All of you. Even the parts you think should stay hidden.”

Heat rises behind my eyes, low in my chest. It feels like something breaking open and flooding me all at once. Like I’ve been seen—and chosen anyway.

I close my eyes.

Because for the first time… I believe that might be true.

And it wrecks me.

I shake my head.

His hands are still holding mine, but I can’t look at him. Can’t let myself.

“I mean it,” I whisper. “You don’t have to do this.”

His thumbs pause their gentle swipes on my cheeks.

“I know it’s a lot. I know I’m a lot. I come with all this mess and years of learning how to stay small. I come with dogs who shed and bark and need food I can barely afford and—”

“Emmy.”

His voice changes.

Not louder.

Just lower.

Firm.

I look up.

And he’s there.

Still kneeling.

Still holding my hands.

But the softness in his gaze has shifted, deepened. Like steel wrapped in velvet.

Like something immovable.

“I’m only going to say this once,” he murmurs. “So I want you to listen.”

My heart stutters.

“You’re not a lot. You’re mine.”

The word lands like a bolt in my chest.

---