"…I couldn't stay at home. I couldn't find what I was looking for. But when I returned here, when I came back to you, one look from you, Celeste, felt like I found something that had long been missing from my life…" Arik paused and took one of my hands.
I just listened as my heart felt like it was bursting with joy.
"...And I knew that once you touched me, once you spoke to me during those times, I knew I would keep coming back to you, over and over again. No matter how many times, I knew I would keep crawling back to you. Celeste… coming for you was like arriving home to a place I had never been but have been yearning for my whole life. I was yours before we even touched each other. That's why I couldn't stay in one house; it's because you were the one I wanted to come home to. You and our beautiful daughter, Ariah."