Tabula Rasa (Unlike Loki: Book Two)

Chapter 28

(Loki)

I shot a look at Anna.

She had her hand over her mouth, her eyes welling with tears. She looked at me and nodded her head. She moved her hand, a tear falling down her cheek. She patted the child's back and touched my arm lightly, looking into my eyes.

"Meet Leolin. Your son." She smiled, her heart obviously melting.

I looked back at the boy, pulling away so that he would look at me.

I looked at my son.

"He's mine?" I whispered, still unable to believe it.

She laughed quietly. "Yes. I found out a few months after everything happened."

She meant my death.

My son.

I kept looking at him, taking him in. He was beautiful, with his mother's softness and my...I don't know what exactly, but I could see myself in him. My heart was oozing.

I had a son.

I laughed, and kissed him on the forehead, pressing him against me, never wanting to let him go.

"Leolin." I whispered. "My boy."

Anna was crying now, and so was I. I had to bend down, my knees were shaking so bad. I set Leolin down and continued to stare at his handsome face.

It was at that moment, when he looked at me with his eyes of pride and love, that I resolved to raise him right. To raise him, not like how I had been raised, but with love and acceptance and support.

My son would grow to be a great man. A man of values, and presence and power and love. I would make sure of it.

He would be all that I never could, in the best way possible.

I grabbed him and pulled him to me, hugging him close. He wrapped his little arms around me as best as he could and giggled. "I'm so glad you're home, Daddy."

"Me too." I whispered.

And I cried on my son's shoulder, too happy to keep it bottled inside me.