Updated Apr 16, 2026 • ~15 min read
Chapter 19: Going Public
Luna
Luna wakes up Sunday morning wrapped in Matthias’s arms with sunlight streaming through her bedroom window and Sofia’s voice drifting from the living room where she’s apparently entertaining herself with cartoons, and for a moment Luna just lies there breathing in this perfect reality—that she’s not alone anymore, that Matthias stayed the night, that her daughter has a father who loves her and Luna has… what, exactly?
That’s the question that’s been circling through her mind since she woke up twenty minutes ago while Matthias continued sleeping peacefully beside her—what are they to each other now? Boyfriend and girlfriend sounds juvenile for two adults in their late twenties and early thirties who share a child. Partners feels too business-like. Lovers is technically accurate after last night but doesn’t capture the emotional depth of what’s building between them.
“You’re thinking too loud,” Matthias mumbles against her shoulder, apparently awake despite keeping his eyes closed. “I can hear your brain from here.”
“Sorry,” Luna says, not sorry at all because Matthias’s sleepy morning voice does things to her that she thought only existed in romance novels. “I was just… thinking about what happens next. What we tell people. What we are.”
Matthias opens his eyes at that, grey gaze immediately sharp despite the early hour, and Luna is reminded that he’s a CEO who’s probably trained himself to go from asleep to alert in seconds flat.
“What do you want to be?” Matthias asks, echoing the question he posed weeks ago but with added weight now that they’ve crossed the physical intimacy line, now that Sofia knows he’s her father, now that their situation is no longer hypothetical.
“I don’t know,” Luna admits, because the honest answer is complicated—she wants security and commitment but is scared of moving too fast, wants to claim Matthias publicly but is terrified of jinxing what they’re building, wants forever but doesn’t know how to trust that promise when forever failed her once before.
“What’s the hesitation?” Matthias presses gently, propping himself up on one elbow so he can see her face properly. “I love you. You love me. We have a daughter together. What’s stopping us from just… being together? Officially?”
“It’s fast,” Luna says, even though part of her brain is already arguing with that assessment. “We’ve been doing this—whatever this is—for less than four months. Is that enough time to know we want forever?”
“We’ve known each other for four years,” Matthias counters with the kind of logic that Luna simultaneously appreciates and resents because it makes sense even when she doesn’t want it to. “We just spent most of that time apart. But Luna, that night four years ago? I knew then. I knew you were special, knew I wanted more than one night, knew I’d found something I didn’t want to lose. The only difference between then and now is that I have the chance to actually keep you this time, and I’m not wasting it by pretending we need to follow some arbitrary timeline that says relationships require X amount of dating before becoming serious.”
“Matthias—” Luna starts, but he’s not done, is clearly on a roll with this speech he’s probably been planning.
“I want us to be a family,” Matthias continues, his intensity making Luna’s heart race because she can see how much this matters to him, how deeply he means every word. “A real one. You, me, Sofia. Not just coordinated custody and scheduled visits. I want to wake up next to you every morning. I want to make breakfast with Sofia and argue about whether she has to eat vegetables and read her bedtime stories every night instead of just some nights. I want everything, Luna. All of it.”
“Like dating?” Luna asks, because she needs to understand what he’s actually proposing, needs to make sure they’re on the same page about expectations and timelines and what “everything” actually means.
“Like everything,” Matthias clarifies, and there’s something almost fierce in his expression now. “Dating, yes, but also partnership. Commitment. Building toward a future together. Maybe not marriage tomorrow—I know that’s probably too fast even for my aggressive timeline—but working toward that. Moving in together. Raising Sofia as a team instead of as separate parents who happen to coordinate. Forever, Luna. That’s what I want. You and me and Sofia, forever.”
“That’s fast,” Luna repeats weakly, even though her heart is screaming that it’s perfect, that this is exactly what she wants too if she can just get past her fear of being hurt again.
“We’ve known each other four years,” Matthias says again. “It’s not fast, it’s delayed. We should have had these four years together. We should have been raising Sofia as a team from day one. We lost all that time to miscommunication and lost phone numbers and fear. I don’t want to lose any more time to being careful when we both know what we want.”
Luna is silent for a long moment, turning his words over in her mind, weighing her fear against the evidence of the past four months—Matthias showing up consistently, learning to be a father, proving through actions that he’s serious about this, about them, about building something permanent.
And suddenly the fear seems smaller than the possibility, the risk of being hurt less significant than the certainty of regret if she lets caution prevent her from claiming the happiness that’s being offered.
“Okay,” Luna hears herself say, and the decision feels both terrifying and exactly right. “Okay, let’s try. Let’s be a family. You, me, and Sofia.”
Matthias’s smile is blinding, transforming his entire face, and then he’s kissing her—deep and thorough and full of promise—and Luna kisses back, letting herself fall into the moment, into the possibility, into the man who’s somehow become essential to her life in less than four months.
“Daddy?” Sofia’s voice from the doorway makes them spring apart like teenagers caught by parents, and Luna turns to find her daughter standing there in her pajamas with her stuffed elephant, looking curious but not upset about finding Matthias in Mama’s bed.
“Good morning, sweetheart,” Matthias says, his voice only slightly strained, and Luna appreciates that he doesn’t seem embarrassed or awkward about being caught, just adjusts to this new reality with the same adaptability he brings to everything. “Did you sleep well?”
“Yes,” Sofia says, climbing onto the bed between them with the casual entitlement of a three-year-old who doesn’t understand adult boundaries. “Are you staying for breakfast, Daddy? Mama makes pancakes on Sundays.”
“If that’s okay with Mama,” Matthias says, looking at Luna for confirmation, and Luna nods because Sunday pancakes with all three of them sounds perfect, sounds like family, sounds like the beginning of something she’s ready to try building.
They make breakfast together—Sofia “helping” by stirring batter and making a mess that Matthias patiently cleans up, Luna cooking pancakes while watching her daughter and her… boyfriend? Partner? Future husband?—and the domestic normalcy of it makes Luna’s chest ache with happiness because this is what she wanted for Sofia, what she dreamed about during her pregnancy when she was alone and scared and convinced she’d have to do everything herself forever.
After breakfast, while Sofia is absorbed in her cartoons, Matthias brings up the question of telling people about their relationship, of making their family official not just privately but publicly.
“I want to tell my family,” Matthias says, loading dishes into Luna’s tiny dishwasher. “My mother and sister. They should know about Sofia, about you, about the fact that I have a daughter and a…” he pauses, searching for the right word.
“Girlfriend sounds weird at our age,” Luna supplies, echoing her earlier thoughts. “But I don’t know what else to call it.”
“Partner,” Matthias suggests. “The woman I’m building a life with. The mother of my child. Pick whichever label feels right, but Luna—I want them to know. I want to introduce you and Sofia properly. Not as a secret or something I’m ashamed of, but as my family.”
The word “family” makes Luna’s defenses crack a little further, makes her realize that Matthias is serious about this, about claiming them publicly instead of keeping their relationship private and protected from outside judgment.
“Your family is…” Luna pauses, remembering the little Matthias has mentioned about his background. “German old money, right? Traditional? What if they don’t approve of me? Of the fact that we had a child together before marriage, that I kept her from you for three years?”
“Then they’ll learn to approve,” Matthias says firmly. “Or they won’t have access to their granddaughter or me. Luna, I love you. I love Sofia. My family’s opinion doesn’t change that. But I’d like them to know, to give them the chance to be part of Sofia’s life if they can do so respectfully.”
“Okay,” Luna agrees, trying not to let anxiety override her willingness to try this. “We’ll meet your family. When?”
“Next weekend maybe?” Matthias suggests. “I’ll arrange a dinner. Something casual where they can meet you and Sofia without it being too formal or intimidating. My sister will love you both—I know she will. My mother is… more complicated. But she’ll come around when she sees how happy you make me.”
They spend the rest of Sunday in domestic bliss—taking Sofia to the park where she insists that both Mama and Daddy push her on the swings, making dinner together with Sofia’s “help” creating more work than assistance, the evening routine of bath and stories with Matthias staying until Sofia is asleep—and when he’s getting ready to leave (they agreed he should still maintain his own place for now, that moving in together is a conversation for after they’ve navigated the initial relationship phase), Luna finds herself reluctant to let him go.
“Stay,” Luna hears herself say, and Matthias pauses at the door.
“Luna, I’ll come back tomorrow,” Matthias reminds her gently. “And the day after. And every day you’ll let me. You don’t have to worry about me disappearing.”
“I know,” Luna says, and she does know, intellectually, but the fear is still there, the learned response from four years of believing he abandoned her. “I just… I like having you here. It feels right.”
“It does,” Matthias agrees, crossing back to her and pulling her into his arms. “But we should take this at a pace that works for Sofia, remember? Let her adjust to having me around more before we make dramatic changes like me moving in. She just learned I’m her father yesterday—let’s give her time to process that before we add relationship complications.”
“When did you become the sensible one?” Luna asks, smiling against his chest.
“When I realized I have everything to lose if I screw this up,” Matthias admits. “I’m trying to be smart instead of just following what I want, which is to move in tomorrow and never leave.”
“Soon,” Luna promises. “We’ll figure out the timeline together. But Matthias—this is real, right? Us? This isn’t just about Sofia?”
“This is absolutely about you,” Matthias says seriously, tilting her chin up so she has to meet his eyes. “Sofia is my daughter and I love her desperately. But I loved you first, Luna. I loved you four years ago, and I love you now, and that love exists completely separate from the fact that we happen to share a child. If we didn’t have Sofia—if it was just us trying to figure out if we could build something—I would still want this. Still want you. Still want forever.”
The certainty in his voice makes Luna’s remaining doubts crack and crumble, makes her believe that maybe this time forever is actually possible instead of just a pretty word people use when they mean “for now.”
“I love you,” Luna says, letting the words fill her mouth and mean everything they imply—present love and future commitment and the willingness to risk her heart on the possibility that Matthias will protect it instead of breaking it.
“I love you too,” Matthias says, and then he’s kissing her goodbye—long and deep and full of promise—before finally leaving, because staying would make it too hard to go and they agreed to be sensible about this, to move at a pace that prioritizes Sofia’s adjustment over their own desires.
Luna locks the door behind him and leans against it for a moment, trying to process the fact that her life has completely transformed in less than twenty-four hours—yesterday morning she was a single mother navigating co-parenting with her daughter’s father, and now she’s in a relationship with a man who wants forever, planning to meet his family, building toward a future that looks nothing like the careful independence she’s maintained for three years.
It’s terrifying.
It’s perfect.
It’s everything she didn’t let herself want because wanting felt too dangerous.
Carmen calls Monday morning demanding details, having apparently sensed through best friend telepathy that something significant happened over the weekend, and Luna tells her everything—telling Sofia about Matthias being her father, the night she and Matthias spent together, the conversation about making their relationship official, the plan to meet his family.
“So you’re really doing this,” Carmen says, and there’s approval in her voice beneath the concern. “You’re all in.”
“I’m all in,” Luna confirms, testing out the words and finding them true. “Carmen, I’m terrified. But I’m also happier than I’ve been in four years. Maybe ever. Is that stupid?”
“It’s not stupid,” Carmen says gently. “It’s brave. And Luna, you deserve this. You deserve happiness and partnership and a man who shows up. Just… protect your heart, okay? I don’t want to see you hurt again.”
“I’m trying to balance protection with actually letting him in,” Luna says. “It’s hard.”
“Everything worth having is hard,” Carmen reminds her. “That’s how you know it matters.”
The week passes in a blur of new normalcy—Matthias coming over every evening after work, the three of them having dinner together and Sofia treating it like this has always been their routine, bedtime stories with “Daddy” while Luna gets a rare moment to herself, Matthias staying later each night until eventually Luna stops expecting him to leave and just assumes he’ll be there until Sofia is asleep.
By Friday, when Matthias confirms that his family dinner is set for Saturday evening, Luna is nervous but also excited—because meeting his family feels like the next step in making this relationship real, in claiming their space as a couple and a family instead of just two people who happen to share a child.
“They’re going to love you,” Matthias says Friday night, helping Luna with dishes while Sofia plays in the living room. “My sister already loves you based on what I’ve told her. My mother will take longer but she’ll come around.”
“And if she doesn’t?” Luna asks, voicing the fear she’s been carrying all week.
“Then she doesn’t get to be part of our lives,” Matthias says simply. “You and Sofia are my priority, Luna. My family can either accept that or not, but it won’t change what we are to each other.”
The certainty in his voice makes Luna feel safer, makes her believe that maybe she really can trust this, trust him, trust that they’re building something permanent instead of just enjoying a honeymoon phase that will fade when reality intrudes.
Saturday evening arrives with Luna more nervous than she’s been since telling Matthias about Sofia’s existence, but she gets dressed in her nicest outfit (not fancy enough for German old money, probably, but the best she can do on her budget), helps Sofia into a dress that makes her look impossibly adorable, and lets Matthias drive them to his family’s townhouse in the Upper East Side.
“Remember,” Matthias says as they park, taking Luna’s hand and squeezing gently. “I love you. Sofia is mine. We’re a family. That’s all that matters. Everything else is just details.”
Luna holds onto those words as they walk up to the intimidating brownstone, as Matthias rings the doorbell, as a woman who must be his sister opens the door with a welcoming smile that immediately makes Luna feel less terrified.
“You must be Luna,” Greta says, pulling her into a hug before Luna can even respond. “And this must be Sofia. Oh, Matthias, she has your eyes!”
And just like that, Luna feels the first layer of anxiety peel away—because if Matthias’s sister can welcome them this warmly, maybe his family isn’t going to be the obstacle Luna feared.
Maybe they’re just the next step in building a life together.
Maybe everything really is going to be okay.
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