Chapter 323: To Feel Loved

Maximilian’s mind conjured a dozen terrible possibilities as he rushed toward the bathroom. Catherine never screamed like that.

He threw the door open, and stopped. Catherine was standing in front of the mirror, holding something in her hands.

The moment she saw him, she smiled. “Maximilian…” Her eyes were already filling with tears.

“I’m pregnant.”

For a moment, Maximilian simply stared at her. Then the breath he’d been holding escaped in a shaky sigh.

He crossed the room in an instant and pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly as he rubbed her back. He kissed her lips, then her forehead, and held her as though he needed to make sure she was really there.

They stayed that way for a long while. Neither of them needed to say anything.

They were going to have a baby.

Catherine couldn’t keep the news to herself for long.

They had planned to wait until the end of the first trimester before telling everyone, but she was far too happy to maintain that sort of discipline. She told her father and her brothers, and the news was met with enough excitement to make her wonder why they had ever considered keeping it secret.

They went for the first check-up soon after.

Everything was fine. The baby was healthy. Catherine was healthy. There was no reason to worry.

And yet, Catherine couldn’t stop herself from worrying.

The memories of her previous life had left a fear inside her that logic couldn’t completely silence. She spent much of the first trimester at home, keeping to herself and doing little beyond what was necessary.

Whenever anxiety crept in, Maximilian was there. “You’re safe,” he would tell her. “And the baby is safe.”

He never dismissed her fears. He simply stayed beside her until they passed. Only after the first trimester ended did Catherine finally begin venturing out as she normally would.

Life slowly settled into a new rhythm.

Maximilian accepted a position at a university in their state, while Catherine took a guest lecturer position there as well. She had already decided that she didn’t possess the patience required to become a full-time teacher, but she enjoyed occasionally sharing what she knew with students.

Her father also surprised her with a little Borzoi.

“A bride for Arcturus,” Catherine declared.

Arcturus seemed perfectly pleased with the arrangement. Catherine named the little girl Amora, and before long, the two dogs became inseparable.

Arcturus still followed Catherine everywhere. He seemed to have appointed himself her personal knight, faithfully trailing behind her as though his sole purpose in life were to protect her.

And he did save her. Once, she and Maximilian went for a ride around the ranch. Catherine was sitting under a tree, listening to the rustle of the trees and watching dust rise up with the wind.

And suddenly, Arcturus growled. Maximilian got alert and picked his rifle. But before that, Arcturus darted toward a plume of dust. And then… the growl of a wolf followed by Arcturus’ growl.

Maximilian gave Catherine a rifle and they looked around. The dust didn’t look like it’d settle.

“Shouldn’t you check on Arcturus?” Catherine asked.

Maximilian shook his head. “he knows what he is doing. And I’m not leaving you.”

Catherine simply watched Maximilian, alert and guarding her. This was the man she mistook as the one who was out to get her, in her past life.

Once again she was thankful they found each other this lifetime, and she found love.

Arcturus returned blood on him. But none of it was his blood. He then simply curled up beside them and went to sleep, as if he didn’t just kill a rogue wolf all by himself.

Catherine was filled with happiness.

Roxana gave birth to a boy, adding yet another son to the Preston family. Alexander was happy. James Preston was mildly disappointed. He had always dreamed of having a house full of daughters, but apparently fate had decided otherwise and he didn’t even get many granddaughters. Which only made him treasure the girls already in the family even more.

Joanne, meanwhile, was tested and discovered to be gifted. She eventually left for a boarding school in Europe, where she would study among the aristocracy.

One evening, Catherine found herself wondering about something that had been lingering in the back of her mind.

“Do you think my father was reincarnated in Europe?”

Maximilian looked at her. She smiled faintly. The thought felt strangely hopeful. The whole process had been so fateful.

In her previous life, her parents had been separated abruptly by death. They had suffered, and their lives had been cut short before they could have the future they deserved.

Would they find each other again in this life? Would fate give them another chance, just as it had given her one?

“Maybe,” Maximilian said softly.

He rubbed her back. Catherine leaned into him.

Maybe. That was enough.

Sebastian and Bernice married soon after, and Catherine attended their wedding. It was a lovely affair, and she enjoyed every moment of it.

Later that day, she stood in front of a mirror, studying her reflection. Her belly was beginning to show. Just more prominently, enough for everyone to notice.

Maximilian came up behind her and rested his hands gently over her stomach. Catherine smiled at their reflection. Then she picked up a tube of stretch-mark cream from the table and handed it to him.

“You might as well rub this on.”

Maximilian accepted it without complaint. “Of course.”

He carefully massaged the cream over her growing belly.

The research laboratory that had been half-built near their property had also been abandoned.

After the previous security lapse, Jonathan had become increasingly uncomfortable with having such a facility so close to their home. Catherine agreed. Whatever excitement she had once felt about having a state-of-the-art medical laboratory nearby wasn’t worth bringing unnecessary danger to their doorstep.

Catherine remembered something. “You truly didn’t purchase the medical laboratories?”

“The BioQuant facilities?”

She nodded.

“I wanted to. But someone else bought them, and they refused to sell them to me no matter how much I offered.”

Catherine narrowed her eyes.

“Was that Jonathan?”

Maximilian smiled. “I think so too.”

He bent down and kissed her belly.

And then… Catherine froze. Her eyes widened.

A tiny movement fluttered beneath Maximilian’s lips.

She looked down. “Did you feel that?”

Maximilian immediately straightened. “What?”

“He kicked!”

His face lit up.

“Really?”

He placed both hands against her belly.

“Here?”

Catherine laughed.

“No. A little lower.”

Maximilian shifted his hands.

“Here?”

“No.”

He moved them again.

“Here?”

Catherine shook her head, laughing. “He already stopped.”

Maximilian waited. Eventually, he gave up with a defeated sigh. Catherine couldn’t help feeling sorry for him. She leaned down and kissed him.

“You’ll feel it soon.”

Maximilian didn’t seem entirely convinced.

He was still kneeling in front of her, pressing his ear against her belly as though sheer determination might allow him to hear their baby.

Catherine looked down at him.

Her eyes filled with tears. She was living an entirely different life this time. A life where she had not lost everything. A life where she had a home, a family, a future—and a husband who loved her.

Time and time again, Maximilian showed her just how different life could be when a woman was loved inside her marriage; when her husband wasn’t merely beside her, but truly with her.

Catherine gently ran her fingers through his hair. And for the first time, the future didn’t frighten her.

It made her happy.

—–

And that day, Catherine had a surprise visitor.

Fitzgerald.

“I need to talk,” he said.

Catherine said nothing at first. She simply placed a generous slice of apple pie in front of him, then poured him a glass of bourbon.

Fitzgerald stared at the pie. Then at her.

“I’ve been having these dreams,” he said finally. “Dreams of orchards. Of a woman.” He hesitated, his brow furrowing. “For some reason, she looks like you. Or… an older version of you. I don’t know. I feel like I’m going crazy.”

Catherine’s heart clenched.

She had hoped she could avoid this conversation. Perhaps, if she kept her distance, the strange familiarity would fade. Perhaps Fitzgerald would never remember.

But perhaps some things refused to be forgotten. She looked at him for a long moment before giving him a small, almost playful smile.

“I might be your mother from another life.” She meant it partly as a joke, and partly as a hope she had been too afraid to say aloud.

Fitzgerald stared at her. Then his expression hardened with confusion. “Mother?” he repeated. “What kind of joke is that?”

Catherine’s heart sank.

But she didn’t linger on his reaction. She had expected it. Of course, he wouldn’t believe her. How could he?

Instead, she reached across the table and gently touched his hand. Then she began to sing.

“Lalla, lalla, dormi, parve,

Sol te fovet inter arva.

Lalla, lalla, claude lumina,

Mater vigilat sub luna…”

Her voice was soft, almost a whisper, carrying the old melody as naturally as though she had sung it yesterday.

“Crastino mane, sol redibit,

Mala rubra de ramis cadent.

Tu leges, tu ridebis,

Dormi nunc, cor meum, dormi…”

Fitzgerald went completely still. The color seemed to drain from his face. His eyes widened as he stared at her.

“How do you know that song?”

Catherine’s eyes burned. She swallowed hard.

“Because I’ve sung it to you,” she whispered. “Plenty of times.” She smiled through the tears gathering in her eyes.

“In my past life.”