Updated Apr 16, 2026 • ~12 min read
Chapter 15: Luna Watching
Luna
Luna watches Matthias with Sofia from the kitchen where she’s pretending to prep dinner ingredients that don’t actually need prepping, and she’s struck by how much has changed in the three weeks since he started his twice-weekly visits—how Sofia no longer hides when the doorbell rings at six o’clock, how she runs to greet “Mr. Wolfe” with excited chatter about her day, how she’s started asking on non-visit days when he’s coming back, like his presence has become part of her routine instead of a confusing intrusion.
And Matthias—Luna has been watching him transform from the awkward stranger who brought an absurdly expensive stuffed elephant to someone who actually knows how to interact with a three-year-old, who brings age-appropriate activities and gets down on the floor without worrying about his expensive suit and reads picture books with patient repetition when Sofia demands her favorites three times in a row.
He’s trying SO hard.
Luna can see it in everything he does—the way he asks Sofia gentle questions instead of interrogating her about her day, the way he lets her lead their playtime instead of directing it, the way he’s learned that she likes purple best and hates when food on her plate touches and needs warnings before transitions because she doesn’t handle surprises well.
And it’s not just observation—Luna spotted parenting books in his briefcase last week when he set it down in the hallway, spines creased from obvious reading, titles like *The Whole-Brain Child* and *How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen* that suggest he’s actually studying fatherhood like one of his business acquisitions, researching and learning and applying knowledge with the same focused intensity he brings to building his empire.
Today Matthias is helping Sofia build an elaborate train track system, the kind of complex configuration that requires spatial reasoning and patience, and Luna watches as he follows Sofia’s increasingly specific instructions—”No, the bridge goes THERE, and then the tunnel, and THEN the station”—without getting frustrated or trying to correct her vision, just supporting her leadership while offering suggestions that she considers and sometimes accepts.
“What if we add this curved piece?” Matthias suggests, holding up a track section. “Then the train can go in a circle.”
Sofia examines the piece with serious concentration, then nods. “Okay. But it has to connect to the mountain tunnel.”
“The mountain tunnel,” Matthias agrees solemnly, like this is a critical engineering specification instead of the imaginary construct of a three-year-old. “Of course.”
They work together for another ten minutes, and Luna finds herself smiling at the sight of them—Matthias in his tailored suit sitting cross-legged on her worn carpet, Sofia chattering away about the train passengers and where they’re going and what they’ll do when they get there, both of them completely absorbed in the kind of play that adults usually find tedious but Matthias seems genuinely engaged with.
He’s gentle with Sofia in a way Luna didn’t expect from a billionaire CEO whose reputation involves ruthless business decisions and aggressive acquisitions—patient when she gets frustrated that a piece won’t connect, encouraging when she figures out a solution herself, never dismissive of her ideas or her emotions or her elaborate explanations of train track logistics that make no actual sense but matter deeply to her.
And he’s not trying to buy her love, despite clearly having unlimited resources to throw at the problem—after that first disastrous elephant gift, Matthias has shown up with thoughtful but modest items: a $12 coloring book instead of a $200 designer toy set, library books he borrowed instead of expensive new purchases, homemade play-dough from a recipe he apparently found online that Sofia declared “better than store kind.”
He’s earning her affection instead of purchasing it.
Proving through consistency and presence that he’s serious about being in her life.
And Luna’s carefully constructed walls are cracking under the weight of that evidence, all her protective certainty that Matthias would lose interest or disappoint Sofia slowly eroding as week after week he shows up exactly when he says he will, stays for exactly the hour they agreed on, and treats their daughter with genuine care instead of obligatory tolerance.
Maybe he’s serious about this.
The thought keeps surfacing despite Luna’s best efforts to maintain skepticism, to protect herself from hope that could turn into disappointment—but it’s getting harder to deny that Matthias seems genuinely invested in fatherhood, genuinely interested in knowing Sofia as a person, genuinely willing to do the difficult work of building relationship instead of just claiming biology makes him a father.
Maybe he won’t leave.
That’s the terrifying possibility Luna is starting to consider—that Matthias might actually stick around, might be the kind of present and consistent father Sofia deserves, might prove all of Luna’s fears wrong about him being too wealthy and too busy and too self-centered to prioritize a child who complicates his life.
And if he doesn’t leave—if he keeps showing up and learning and trying and being good at this—then Luna has to reconsider everything she’s believed about him for four years, has to admit that maybe the ghosting was genuinely an accident, maybe his search for her was sincere, maybe the man who held her while she cried in his penthouse four years ago was real and not just a fantasy she constructed from wishful thinking.
“Mama, come see!” Sofia calls from the living room, breaking Luna’s spiral of thoughts. “The train track is HUGE!”
Luna leaves the kitchen and crosses to admire their work—and it is impressive, a complex configuration of tracks and bridges and tunnels that covers most of the available floor space, the kind of ambitious project that three-year-olds usually abandon halfway through but Sofia completed with Matthias’s patient assistance.
“That’s amazing, baby,” Luna says honestly, crouching down to examine the details. “Did you design this?”
“Me and Mr. Wolfe,” Sofia says, beaming with pride. “He helped with the hard parts.”
“She did most of it,” Matthias counters, and there’s such genuine pride in his voice when he talks about Sofia’s accomplishment that Luna’s chest tightens with complicated emotion. “I just held pieces steady while she figured out the connections.”
Sofia launches into an elaborate explanation of the train track’s features and purposes, and Luna listens while watching Matthias watch Sofia, cataloging the softness in his expression when he looks at their daughter, the way his whole face transforms from CEO-controlled to openly adoring when Sofia isn’t paying attention to him.
He loves her.
The realization hits Luna with unexpected force—Matthias loves Sofia, genuinely loves her, not just because biology says she’s his daughter but because he’s spent three weeks getting to know her personality and her quirks and all the things that make her who she is, and he’s chosen to love this specific little human instead of just claiming ownership of a generic child.
And if Matthias loves Sofia—really loves her, the way Luna loves her—then he’s not going to leave, not going to disappoint her, not going to be the absent father Luna feared he’d become.
The knowledge should be purely positive, should make Luna happy that her daughter will have two parents instead of one—but it’s tangled up with fear because if Matthias is serious about fatherhood, if he’s going to be a permanent presence in Sofia’s life, then Luna has to figure out how to co-parent with him, how to share decisions and time and all the aspects of raising a child that she’s controlled alone for three years.
And worse—she has to figure out what Matthias is to her, whether he’s just Sofia’s father or something more complicated, whether the attraction she felt four years ago is still there underneath all the hurt and anger, whether they could be something beyond co-parents if they both wanted that.
“Are you okay?” Matthias asks quietly, and Luna realizes she’s been staring at him while Sofia plays with the completed train track, lost in thoughts that are probably written all over her face.
“Fine,” Luna says automatically, but Matthias is looking at her with that intense focus that makes her feel exposed, like he can see all the complicated emotions she’s trying to hide.
“We should talk,” Matthias says, glancing at Sofia to make sure she’s absorbed in her play. “After… maybe this weekend? About where this is going?”
“Where what is going?” Luna asks, even though she knows exactly what he means.
“This,” Matthias gestures between them. “Us. Co-parenting. Whatever we’re doing. I don’t want to assume anything, but Luna—we need to figure out what our relationship is beyond just parents who share a child.”
The honesty of it steals Luna’s breath because she’s been avoiding this exact conversation, avoiding admitting that there’s unfinished business between them beyond Sofia, avoiding the question of whether they could be friends or partners or something else entirely.
“Okay,” Luna hears herself agree. “Saturday afternoon? Carmen can watch Sofia.”
“Saturday afternoon,” Matthias confirms, and there’s something hopeful in his expression that makes Luna’s walls crack a little further, that makes her wonder if maybe—just maybe—they could build something real out of the wreckage of their complicated history.
The rest of the visit passes quickly, Sofia showing off various train track features while Matthias admires her engineering and Luna tries not to think too hard about Saturday’s conversation, and when seven o’clock arrives and Matthias prepares to leave, Sofia actually looks disappointed.
“Do you have to go?” Sofia asks, and it’s the first time she’s expressed reluctance about Matthias leaving instead of cheerfully waving goodbye.
“Dinner time, remember?” Luna says gently, even though part of her heart is melting at the evidence that Sofia is genuinely bonding with her father. “Mr. Wolfe will be back on Tuesday.”
“Can he eat dinner with us?” Sofia asks, and both adults freeze because that’s not part of their agreement, that’s extending the visit beyond the carefully controlled hour into something more domestic, more family-like, more complicated.
“Not tonight, baby,” Luna says carefully, trying not to shut down Sofia’s request too harshly while also maintaining the boundaries that keep this situation manageable. “But maybe someday.”
“Someday soon?” Sofia presses with the persistence that three-year-olds are famous for, and Luna looks at Matthias helplessly because she doesn’t know how to answer that question without making promises she’s not sure she’s ready to keep.
“We’ll see,” Matthias says, saving Luna from having to respond. “But I promise I’ll be back on Tuesday, okay? We can play trains again.”
“Okay,” Sofia agrees with the easy acceptance of a child who trusts that adults will keep their promises, and she gives Matthias a spontaneous hug—just wraps her little arms around his legs in a gesture of casual affection that makes his eyes go suspiciously shiny.
“Bye, Sofia,” Matthias manages, his voice rough with emotion, and he gently pats her back before extracting himself and heading for the door before he embarrasses himself by crying in front of a three-year-old.
Luna walks him out, and in the hallway Matthias turns to her with an expression that’s vulnerable in a way she’s never seen from him.
“She hugged me,” he says, like he still can’t quite believe it.
“She did,” Luna confirms, and she can feel herself softening toward him despite all her protective instincts screaming at her to maintain distance. “She’s starting to trust you.”
“I’m not going to betray that trust,” Matthias says seriously. “I promise, Luna. I’m in this for the long term. Whatever it takes.”
“I’m starting to believe that,” Luna admits, and the confession costs her something—her defensive walls, her protective anger, the narrative she’s been clinging to that Matthias is unreliable and selfish and incapable of being a real father.
“Good,” Matthias says, and he looks like he wants to say more, maybe wants to reach for her the way he did that night in her living room when the truth first came out—but instead he just says goodbye and heads down the stairs, leaving Luna standing in her doorway with more questions than answers about what happens next.
She returns to her apartment to find Sofia already at the table waiting for dinner, chattering about the train track and how Mr. Wolfe is “really good at building” and can they make an even bigger track next time—and Luna serves dinner while listening to her daughter’s enthusiasm, cataloging every mention of Matthias and what it means that Sofia is starting to incorporate him into her world.
After Sofia is in bed, Luna texts Carmen:
*Luna: I think I might be in trouble.*
*Carmen: What kind of trouble?*
*Luna: The falling-for-my-daughter’s-father kind.*
*Carmen: Again? Or still?*
The question makes Luna laugh because Carmen is right—is this new feelings or just old feelings that never actually went away, just got buried under hurt and anger and protective fear?
*Luna: I don’t know. Maybe both.*
*Carmen: Are you going to do something about it?*
*Luna: We’re talking Saturday. Figuring out what we are beyond co-parents.*
*Carmen: Good. You deserve happiness, Luna. And Sofia deserves parents who get along. Maybe you deserve each other.*
Luna wants to believe that, wants to trust that this time could be different, that Matthias has proven himself enough that she can lower her walls and let him in—but four years of hurt and three weeks of good behavior are hard to reconcile, hard to weight against each other, hard to use as foundation for anything beyond tentative cooperation.
But maybe that’s enough to start with.
Maybe forgiveness doesn’t happen all at once, maybe it’s built slowly through consistency and patience and watching someone try so hard to earn something they technically have a biological right to but choose to work for anyway.
Maybe Matthias Wolfe is serious about being in their lives.
And maybe—terrifying as the thought is—Luna is ready to give him the chance to prove it.
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