---- Chapter 16 "What's this one?" | asked, my fingers tracing the velvet of the small box. Noah suddenly looked nervous, his usual calm demeanor replaced by a fidgety anticipation. "Uh, that one... you should probably watch this first," he said, gesturing to my laptop, which was open on the coffee table. He clicked play. A video started. Helen, my boss, smiling into the camera. "Mia, happy birthday! And Noah, just do it already! She' s amazing, you' re amazing together. We' re all rooting for you!" Then, my colleagues from Bridge City Design, one by one, offering birthday wishes and encouraging words for Noah. "Go for it, Noah!" "She's a keeper!" My face flushed with surprise and a dawning understanding. The video transitioned. Noah' s voice, earnest and a little shaky, filled the room. "Mia, ' m not good with grand gestures. | know your past ---- birthdays haven' t always been... happy. | wanted this one to be different." "| thought about diamonds, about fancy restaurants. But that "snot us, is it?" "Us is... this." The screen showed his hands, carefully shaping something small and intricate out of clay. A tiny, perfectly rendered daisy. "It' s not much," his voice continued. "But it' s from the heart." Then, Noah himself appeared on screen, in my living room, earlier that day. He held up the clay daisy. And nestled in its center, almost hidden, was a delicate, sparkling ring. An engagement ring. My breath caught in my throat. Tears streamed down my face, but this time, they were tears of pure, unadulterated joy. The kind of tears | thought I' d forgotten how to cry. The video ended. | looked up. ---- Noah was kneeling in front of me, the small velvet box open in his hand. Inside, the clay daisy, with the ring nestled in its heart. "Mia Hayes," he began, his voice thick with emotion. "| know you' ve been through so much. | know trust doesn' t come easily to you. I' m not asking for an answer right now. | just want you to know... | love you. More than words can say. | want to spend my life making you happy, making you feel safe, cherished." "This ring..." he picked it up, "the band is intertwined, like our lives. And the stone... it' s small, but it' s clear, like my love for you." He looked at the clay daisy. "And this... this is you. A concrete daisy. Strong, beautiful, resilient. Blooming even in the hardest places." | looked closer at the ring. Etched almost invisibly on the inside of the band were tiny coordinates. The coordinates of the park in my old upstate town, where | ' d seen that first defiant daisy pushing through the pavement. My painful birthdays of the past, Ethan' s casual cruelty, Isabella' s malice - they all faded into insignificance against the overwhelming power of this moment, this man's love. "Noah," | whispered, my voice choked. ---- He started to say something else, probably his prepared speech about taking my time, about no pressure. But | couldn' t wait. "Yes," | said, interrupting him. "Yes, Noah. A thousand times, yes!" His face broke into a grin of pure, unadulterated joy. "Really?" "Really." He slid the ring onto my finger. It fit perfectly. He jumped up, pulling me into his arms, swinging me around in a dizzying, ecstatic hug. "She said yes!" he shouted to the empty room, then kissed me, a kiss full of laughter and promises. Being genuinely loved. It was... everything. It was a quiet strength, a gentle warmth, a safe harbor. It was Noah, with his flour-dusted apron and his slightly lopsided cake, offering me not a gilded cage, but a shared life, built on trust and respect. Later, as he attempted to make a celebratory dinner (setting off the smoke alarm twice), | asked him about the clay daisy. ---- "| saw you sketching that daisy in the park, back in that little town," he said, sheepishly. "The one by the old apple tree. You looked... so focused. So hopeful. It stuck with me." He had noticed. He had remembered. Such a small detail, from so long ago. But it was everything. It was the moment | knew, with absolute certainty, that | was home.