Updated Apr 16, 2026 • ~13 min read
Chapter 30: Resolution – One Year Later
Matthias
Matthias wakes up one year after his wedding to the sound of Sofia having a complete meltdown in her bedroom, and he immediately knows what day it is—the first day of kindergarten, which Sofia has been simultaneously excited about and terrified of for the past month, with emotions swinging wildly between “I’m going to make SO many friends!” and “What if nobody likes me?” on an hourly basis.
“I DON’T WANT TO GO!” Sofia shouts from her room, and Matthias hears the telltale sound of his daughter throwing things (probably stuffed animals, hopefully not books).
Luna is still asleep beside him—she’s six months pregnant with their second child and exhausted in a way that makes Matthias grateful he’s not the one growing an entire human being inside his body—so he slips out of bed quietly to handle their daughter’s pre-kindergarten crisis alone.
“Sofia,” Matthias says, opening her bedroom door to find his daughter sitting in the middle of her princess castle room (which they repainted last year when she decided pink was “baby stuff” and purple was “cool now”) surrounded by rejected outfit choices and looking mutinous. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”
“I can’t go to school,” Sofia announces with the kind of dramatic finality that suggests she’s thought this through and made a logical decision. “I’m staying home forever.”
“Forever is a long time,” Matthias says, sitting on her bed and trying not to smile at the five-year-old dramatics. “What if you just try kindergarten for one day? And if you hate it, we’ll discuss your forever-home plan.”
“What if the other kids don’t like me?” Sofia asks, and there’s genuine fear in her voice now, vulnerability that makes Matthias’s heart ache because his confident, outgoing daughter is nervous about fitting in.
“Then they have terrible taste,” Matthias says seriously. “But Sofia, I promise you’re going to make friends. You’re funny and smart and kind. Any kid who doesn’t want to be your friend is missing out.”
“What if I’m not smart enough?” Sofia continues, apparently working through her entire list of anxieties. “What if everyone else knows more stuff?”
“Then you’ll learn,” Matthias assures her. “That’s what school is for. Nobody expects you to know everything on the first day.”
“What if I miss you and Mama?” Sofia asks, and this is clearly the real fear—separation anxiety from being away from her parents for the full school day.
“We’ll miss you too,” Matthias admits, because lying won’t help. “But we’ll be right here when school ends. And you get to tell us all about your day. All the new things you learned and the friends you made.”
Sofia considers this, chewing on her bottom lip the way Luna does when she’s thinking, and Matthias can see his wife’s expressions all over their daughter’s face—the stubbornness and strength and underlying kindness that makes them both so remarkable.
“Okay,” Sofia says finally. “But you have to walk me in. Not just drop-off. You have to come INSIDE.”
“Deal,” Matthias agrees, even though he knows Luna wanted to do the first-day walk-in, because Luna is pregnant and still sleeping and Matthias will do literally anything to make Sofia feel safe right now, including breaking plans with his wife.
They pick out an outfit together—Sofia insisting on her favorite purple dress with the sparkly unicorn because “first impressions matter, Daddy”—and Matthias helps her get ready while trying not to think about how his baby is starting kindergarten, how she’s growing up so fast, how it feels like just yesterday she was three years old and calling him “Matti” because she couldn’t pronounce Matthias.
Luna emerges from their bedroom as they’re eating breakfast, her baby bump prominent now, and she takes one look at Sofia in her first-day outfit and immediately starts crying.
“Mama, don’t cry!” Sofia says, alarmed. “I’m just going to kindergarten!”
“I know,” Luna sniffles, sitting down at the table with them. “But you’re so big now. My baby is starting school.”
“I’m not a baby,” Sofia corrects with five-year-old indignation. “I’m going to be a big sister soon!”
She says this while gesturing to Luna’s stomach, and Matthias watches his daughter talk to her unborn sibling the way she does every morning—telling the baby about her plans for the day and what she’s going to teach them when they’re born—and his heart feels so full it might actually burst.
“Daddy, will baby brother or sister like me?” Sofia asks, turning to Matthias with the same vulnerability she showed earlier about kindergarten friends.
“They’ll love you,” Matthias promises, reaching over to smooth Sofia’s curls. “You’re going to be the best big sister. You’ll teach them everything—how to climb trees, how to negotiate for extra dessert, how to make Daddy cry by being adorable.”
“You cry a lot,” Sofia observes matter-of-factly. “At the wedding you cried SO much.”
“Happy tears,” Matthias defends, and Luna laughs because she’s been teasing him about his emotional wedding breakdown for the entire past year.
They finish breakfast and pack Sofia’s backpack—lunch, water bottle, the special stuffed elephant keychain she insisted on bringing for comfort, and a family photo that Matthias printed for her cubby so she can see them whenever she misses home—and then it’s time to leave, time for Matthias to take his daughter to her first day of kindergarten while Luna stays home to rest (though she insists on coming to the door to wave goodbye with tears streaming down her face).
The drive to school is short—they chose the house in Brooklyn partially for the excellent public schools in the district—and Sofia alternates between excited chatter and anxious silence, her little hand gripping Matthias’s tightly as they walk into the building.
The kindergarten classroom is bright and cheerful, decorated with alphabet posters and colorful learning stations, and Sofia’s teacher—Ms. Robertson, young and enthusiastic and exactly the kind of warm presence a nervous five-year-old needs—greets them at the door.
“You must be Sofia!” Ms. Robertson says with genuine warmth. “I’m so excited to have you in our class. Do you want to see where your cubby is?”
Sofia nods silently, suddenly shy, and she doesn’t let go of Matthias’s hand as Ms. Robertson shows them around the classroom, pointing out the reading corner and art station and where Sofia will sit.
“Daddy has to go now, Sofia,” Ms. Robertson says gently after the tour. “But he’ll be back this afternoon to pick you up. And you’re going to have so much fun today.”
Sofia’s eyes immediately fill with tears, and she wraps both arms around Matthias’s waist and refuses to let go, and Matthias feels his own throat tighten because this is SO hard, leaving his baby in a classroom full of strangers, trusting that she’ll be okay without him.
“I’ll be back,” Matthias promises, crouching down to Sofia’s level. “Right after school ends. And tonight you can tell me and Mama everything you learned. Deal?”
“Deal,” Sofia whispers, and she kisses his cheek and slowly, reluctantly releases her grip and allows Ms. Robertson to guide her toward a table where other children are playing with blocks.
Matthias walks out of the classroom trying very hard not to cry, makes it to his car, and then completely breaks down with ugly sobbing that would be embarrassing if he cared about anything besides the fact that his daughter is in kindergarten and growing up and he can’t protect her from everything anymore.
He calls Luna from the car, still crying.
“How was drop-off?” Luna asks, and there’s amusement in her voice like she already knows the answer.
“She cried. I cried. Everyone cried,” Matthias reports, wiping his face with his sleeve. “It was a disaster.”
“Dramatic,” Luna says, but there’s fondness in her teasing.
“Wolfe family trait,” Matthias counters, because Sofia definitely inherited the dramatics from his side of the family—his mother still brings up how much he cried when they sent him to boarding school at eight years old.
“Come home,” Luna says gently. “I made coffee. We’ll survive her first day together.”
Matthias drives home to find Luna waiting on the porch despite being six months pregnant and supposed to be resting, and she pulls him into a hug and they stand there holding each other and processing that their baby is in kindergarten, that time is passing so quickly, that soon there will be another baby and Sofia will be a big sister and their family will keep growing and changing.
“We made this,” Matthias says, pulling back to look at Luna—his wife, the mother of his children, the woman who gave him a second chance when he didn’t deserve it. “All of this. Our family. Sofia starting school. Baby number two on the way. We actually did it.”
“Best mistake I ever made was that one night stand,” Luna says with a smile, and it’s become their running joke—the night that changed everything, that gave them Sofia, that led to all of this.
“Best decision I made was giving you a second chance,” Matthias responds, because it’s true—Luna could have kept Sofia from him, could have refused his attempts at co-parenting, could have protected her heart and never let him in, but she chose to trust him, chose to let him prove himself, chose to build this family with him.
Inside the house they settle on the couch together, Luna’s head on Matthias’s shoulder and his hand on her baby bump feeling their second child kick, and Matthias thinks about everything that’s happened in the past two years.
Finding Luna again after four years of thinking she was lost forever.
Discovering he had a daughter he never knew existed.
The custody negotiations and supervised visits and slowly, painfully earning Sofia’s trust.
Falling in love with Luna all over again—or maybe for the first time, really, since their first night together was attraction and chemistry but this is actual knowledge and partnership and choosing each other every day.
Moving in together, proposing with Sofia’s help, the wedding where they both cried and Sofia interrupted their first kiss as a married couple.
The honeymoon in Germany, introducing Sofia to her heritage, making love to his wife in Munich hotel rooms while their daughter napped.
And now this—Sofia in kindergarten, Luna pregnant with their planned and wanted second child, both of them successful in their careers (Luna now manages the entire executive team at the tech company, Matthias still runs Wolfe Industries but with better work-life balance), their house filled with toys and laughter and the comfortable chaos of actual family life.
“What are you thinking about?” Luna asks, tilting her head to look up at him.
“Everything,” Matthias admits. “How four years ago I thought that night with you was just a one-time thing. How I spent three years not knowing I had a daughter. How two years ago I was a workaholic bachelor who thought family was obligation instead of joy. And now…”
“Now?” Luna prompts.
“Now I have everything I never knew I wanted,” Matthias finishes. “You. Sofia. This baby. Our family. Our life. It’s not perfect—”
“—Sofia just had a meltdown about kindergarten—” Luna interjects.
“—and we’re both exhausted—” Matthias continues.
“—and the house is a mess—” Luna adds, gesturing at the scattered toys.
“—but it’s ours,” Matthias concludes. “Our chaos. Our family. Our forever.”
“Forever,” Luna echoes, and she kisses him softly. “I like the sound of that.”
They spend the rest of the morning in comfortable domesticity—Luna working from home on her laptop while Matthias catches up on emails, both of them pretending they’re not constantly checking the time and wondering how Sofia is doing at school—and when three o’clock finally arrives, Matthias practically runs to the car to do pickup.
Sofia comes running out of the classroom with a huge smile, a painting in one hand and new best friend’s hand in the other, chattering about everything she did and learned and how kindergarten is “actually really fun, Daddy!” and Matthias has to blink back tears again because his daughter is happy, is thriving, is growing up into this incredible little person who doesn’t need him every second anymore but still chooses to tell him about her day.
At home, Sofia shows Luna her painting (a very abstract family portrait with “Mama, Daddy, Sofia, and Baby” labeled in wobbly kindergarten handwriting), tells them about her new friends Emma and Jackson, demonstrates the alphabet song she learned, and announces that kindergarten is “the best” and she can’t wait to go back tomorrow.
That night, after Sofia is asleep and Luna is doing her evening routine, Matthias stands in the doorway of Sofia’s room watching his daughter sleep surrounded by her stuffed animals and kindergarten artwork, and thinks about how five years ago this child didn’t exist in his knowledge, and now she’s the center of his entire world.
Luna finds him there, slips her hand into his.
“Good day?” she asks quietly.
“The best,” Matthias confirms. “Terrifying and emotional and perfect. Just like everything with our family.”
“From one night to forever,” Luna says, and it’s another one of their sayings—the journey they took from strangers to parents to partners to married couple.
“Forever sounds perfect,” Matthias responds, pulling her close and resting his hand on her baby bump where their second child is growing, where their family is expanding, where their future is literally taking shape.
And Matthias thinks about the night four years ago when he met a beautiful woman at a charity gala and took her home and thought it was just a one-time thing, and how wrong he was—it wasn’t one night, it was the beginning of everything, the first chapter of a story that’s still being written, the foundation of a family he didn’t know he was creating but can’t imagine living without.
From one night stand to forever.
From secret baby to chosen family.
From lost and lonely to loved and complete.
From successful businessman to devoted father and husband.
From that one perfect night to this—standing in his daughter’s doorway with his pregnant wife beside him and Sofia sleeping peacefully and their family whole and happy and exactly what Matthias never knew he needed.
Forever.
With Luna and Sofia and their baby on the way and whatever else their future holds.
Forever sounds absolutely perfect.
Reader Reactions