Anne's P.O.V
With Liam going out with the guys, I had to go and get Alexia from my mums and I decided that I would have her decide where she wanted to go and eat out tonight, since I just wanted to put my feet up and forget about work for the evening. Have a little girly fun with my number one girl in my life.
"Mother, where are you? Mum?"
She is always here somewhere in the house, especially when she has Alexia over, otherwise she would have let me know she was taking her out. Maybe she's in bed or in the gym. Yes, this house has its own gym. The bedroom is empty, the gym is empty.... splash... What was that? It sounded a lot like the pool, so she must be in the pool.
When I arrived at the pool area, mom and some weird man I didn't know were kissing. Not your usual kiss, hey. I think I even had a little blush going on. Omg my mom has a boyfriend! I cleared my throat and they both froze.
"Hey, hone
Eight months laterAlexia's P.O.VI had had a bad nightmare so I went and climbed into bed with my mummy and daddy. I knew I wasn't supposed to bother mummy because she hasn't been sleeping well these last couple of weeks because my little brother was kicking her when she was trying to sleep. Mummy put my hand on her belly once and then he kicked me too. I giggled because it had tickled me. Not wanting to bother mummy, I stayed as close as I could to daddy.I woke up feeling wet and when I touched my pyjamas they were full of water. Maybe Darren had kicked mummy so hard that she had wet the bed. I started shaking daddy to get him awake to check if mummy was okay because she was making funny faces and she looked hurt."Go to sleep, Alexia. Please don't bother your mum.""But dad, mum is in pain and she wet the bed."Right after I said that, dad shot up from the bed and ran ov
Two years laterAnne's P.O.VAn excited eight-year-old walking the halls in a beautiful pink blush dress practicing her flower throwing skills is what woke me up this morning. My little girl is so excited because she gets to be the flower girl at her grandmother's wedding today. She has been walking the halls of the house practicing the best way to throw the flowers and to make sure that she has the right technique according to her, for the last five weeks, we had been planning the wedding. She really had the cutest way of asking her to be her flower girl. Mum asked me to be her maid of honour since her friends are all judging her for being happy with another man who isn't my dad, Donald. It took her such a long time to get where she is today to even be ready to move on from him and they are at the moment only making it worse. Mum couldn't stay mad at them. She even sent out wedding invites to them but forgot the pe
Two weeks laterAnne's P.O.VI had decided that maybe it would be nice to have Elizabeth and them here to see her two grandchildren and so I invited them and made sure that they had everything they needed to attend.Alexia's party is today and Elizabeth, Ernie and Arnold are coming too. Me and Liam explained everything to Lexi and she understood. When they had arrived, Elizabeth and her family looked so out of place and almost scared to say anything, so I walked over to them and started a conversation."Hi, thank you for coming!"I even threw in a few hugs all around to make them feel more welcome."No problem, thank you for the invitation."Just then Alexia came running to me."Mommy, look here what granny bought me for my birthday!"She made Elizabeth feel more bad or out numbered because she couldn't afford anything in the price range."That's nice, did you thank her properly?""Yes, of course, mom."She turned towards Elizabeth and looked confused."Hi, who are you?"Before I coul
Ten years laterAnne's P.O.VTime really flies when you are having fun. That is what we have been doing for the past ten years. Alexia is at the legal age and still my happy little girl. She and her brother Darren get along fine. I have heard that kids with an age difference between them fight like cats and dogs, but these two are playing nice. Might begin changing now with Darren reaching his teen years and Alexia exiting them. Who knows, we will have to wait and see what happens.Alexia is turning eighteen today. Her gift from me is a brand spanking new car, she had been dropping hints about it all the while we have been teaching her how to drive. Liam, on the other hand, is planning his but won't tell me what it is. As if I can't keep a secret from our little girl.Anyways, her car was delivered late last night with a bow and everything and her keys I wrapped in wrapping
Luke's P.O.V (Alexia's Boyfriend) I get the feeling that she doesn't want me to meet her parents. Why I don't know, but after trying for the last six months she finally agreed to let me meet them. I knew about the dinner because my dad was going and I knew about the formal attire as that, is all that dad could talk about. His invite to be at a Jones-Watson family party. I arrived home and told my mom and dad I would be joining them tonight. They looked shocked to say the least, they always had to force me to go or drag me with them, but here I am telling them that I was going on my own free will. I would freak out too.My parents know about me and Lexi and she has met them so many times when she has come over or in passing. Making it no problem for me to have a perfect gift for her ready on time for the party and her birthday. It is a beautiful diamond necklace that I had designed from scratch and one of its k
Two years laterLuke's P.O.VAlexia and I have been going steady for the last three years and I feel that it is now the right time to ask her a very important question that will change the way everything is at the moment. I am going to ask Alexia to marry me as soon as I have permission from her dad.Since we met, we have been getting along great and I always ask him for help or advice when I am stuck with a problem and I am not sure which way might be the best way out of the problem. He has really become a mentor and I would like to have him as my father-in-law.I had called and asked if I could come over to the office to ask for his advice on a matter and he had said that he didn't mind me coming. His PA had said that he was between meetings at the moment and that I could go in. I knocked on his office door and when he invited me in, I opened the door."Good afternoon
Alexia's P.O.VMum and dad apparently knew that Luke was going to ask me to marry him, as Luke had been to ask dad's permission before he popped the question to me. It must have been torture for mum as she is so used to sharing everything with me unless dad didn't tell her until it was happening and she couldn't spill the beans. I don't mind. It was a nice surprise and I loved every moment of it.We are currently heading home because his parents and my parents are waiting there for us before we are going out for a celebratory lunch. If I had to be honest, I would have loved to stay and just be me and him all alone, but we have all the time in the world later on to do just that.We arrived and walked into the house and could hear all the parents sitting in the living room talking and laughing. I whispered to Luke to try and get him to come with me."Last chance. We can still make a run for it and just spend time
Two months laterLuke's P.O.VMum and auntie Anne went all out with the engagement party. There were people here who I had never met in my life and Alexia seemed just as confused as to who some of these people were. We decided that we would stay in our corner together to avoid any further confusion and weirdness from happening like earlier on. Mum, dad and Alexia's parents were chatting away with everyone while we were sitting there enjoying talking to each other and the few friends we had gotten invited to the party. We made plans to go out afterwards and have some fun on our own away from this party where we could properly celebrate our engagement with the people important to us.I also need to slip away sometime so I can get the honeymoon arranged. Alexia had said that she didn't want anything fancy and dad had said we could borrow the holiday home if we wanted to, so the honeymoon plan was s
Anne's P.O.VThe funny thing about life is we make plans and then it just happens, whether as planned or a completely different way. My current life may not have been as I had planned it, but if I had a second chance, I believe I wouldn't be changing one thing. After having heard the reasons why I wasn't chosen, I was happy that I had gotten amazing parents and that later on in life I had received an additional mother and father figure in Rachel and Harold.I had received an amazing husband, life partner and best friend all wrapped into one perfect person.I have amazing friends who have stood with me and with us through everything, good and bad, whatever it was.I have two amazing children whom I love and that love me back. They have gone out into the world and brought me another two children to add to the family. They gave me two cute grandchildren to keep me on my toes.Not forgetting, I
The day of the reading of the will.Anne's P.O.VThe weekend stay over actually turned out to be heaps of fun. We played games, had fun and just talked about everything about dad.Now for the reading of the will.We all gathered around the table at the lawyers' offices to hear dad's last wishes. I had the feeling of deja vu about being here again and sitting around this table again after a funeral and having to hear what last wishes that person wants you to make happen for them. Last time he mostly left everything to me and mum and I'm wondering what will happen today."If I can get everyone's attention, please, so we can start the proceedings and get you all home again."Everyone quieted down and sat down on one of the chairs set out for us. The will was taken out of the envelope and looked towards all of us before starting to read."This is the last will and testame
Rachel's P.O.VHe is gone. My Donald is gone. He had promised me he wouldn't leave me alone and now he's gone forever. I knew we weren't today's kids anymore and I had been blessed to have him for as long as I did have him, but he was my happiness and now there is just nothing. The house is empty when everyone leaves to go to their own homes and I'm thinking of selling it and going back to a little flat where I wouldn't feel so lonely when I'm there alone, but I don't know what Donald wanted to happen to the house after his passing so I guess I would have to wait and see.Anne has been very helpful. Bringing over large dishes of food that is easily free able and reheat able in big portions so I have enough easy to heat food ready to eat when I feel like eating. Speaking of eating, that is something I no longer have the energy to do because Donald used to make the best meals in the kitchen and every time I warm a portion up I
Two weeks later Anne's P.O.VI was at the office when I got the phone call from Rachel telling me to come to the hospital as soon as possible. She didn't want to elaborate more and kept telling me to come to the hospital she was at as soon as possible. She was in tears so I knew it had to be serious, so I packed up my bag and rushed to the hospital. Upon arrival, Rachel ran into my arms and stood there crying for a while before she could even get a word of what was wrong and what had happened out.After she had calmed down enough, she led me to a hospital room and when I looked through the little window I saw dad laying there connected to so many wires and tubes and... it just didn't look right."What happened? Why?... How?... NO!""He had a heart attack this morning and they rushed him here in the ambulance where he had another one. He is for now under sedation so he can rest and
Four years laterAnne's P.O.VI cannot believe that we are attending another graduation ceremony again today. This time the guest of honour is our Nat. She had continued and fought and she is now finally picking the fruits of her hard work. Although she has been practicing medicine since the end of the year when she finished studying, she is practically only a doctor from today on as she now has the papers to prove it.To me they mean absolutely nothing, as Natacha is the best doctor at the hospital she works at and this can be seen by everyone and she has been praised for this a lot of times by her supervisor and even the people and the kids she takes care of.She is not the only one excelling in their careers as Darren wins almost all of his legal cases he takes on for his firm. Ethan was sad to see him leave his firm but knew that Darren wanted to start his own and get on
Three years laterAnne's P.O.VMy baby boy is graduating from college today as a lawyer and we already have a job set up for him at Ethan's firm where and through whom he can do his articles and get further training and experience before he, as he has planned, starts his own law firm. Ethan is the best I know and I trust him with the business and we still make use of his firm for the whole family matters as well as the business legal matters we have. He is and will stay a trusted friend and the only law firm we use if they continue their ways as he has set them out and I know Darren looks up to him just as much as me and Liam do along with dad.We sat down in the designated seating area for the parents and waited to hear his name called to watch him walk the stage and get his degree. What we weren't expecting was that he would be graduating with honours and that he would be in the top five of hi
Darren's P.O.VI was luckily allowed to stay the whole time with Nat and little Jo-Anne. I was going to say night, but then remembered that it had been three am when Nat's water broke and we haven't had any sleep since arriving at the hospital until the nurse had chased everyone out and Nat went to lie down for a little while. I decided that I wanted to hold Jo-Anne for a little while longer. She was just so perfect, cuddling my finger the way she was while sleeping. She definitely had her mum's cute nose and I don't know about her eyes as she hadn't opened them when I was looking. Don't forget the pair of lungs she has. I was so shocked to hear that huge sound came from such a small little body.She was now silently sleeping in my arms while her mother also got some sleep in before she needed to feed again. Hoping the parents won't come and visit in the first early visiting hours, so that we can spend some time together alo
Anne's P.O.VWhen the phone rang, I was dressed before Liam was even done with the call. I had been expecting this call to come ever since she had hit eight months pregnant. I have bags packed for both me and Liam if we need to stay over and everything. I want to get to Natasha as soon as possible and help her with her breathing exercises and so on as she had asked me to do. I pulled out the bags from the closet and put them at the door while Liam was still getting dressed. He could get them on his way down."Liam get the two bags when coming down. I am going to go and make some coffee for the road and maybe, if I have time, pack some snacks."I hurried down the stairs and switched on the coffee machine on my way to the cupboard to get something to nibble on. I grabbed some chocolate bars and bags of chips just to keep our sugar and energy levels high. In a thermal flask I put the made coffee and closed the lid, packe
Three months laterDarren's P.O.VNat was sitting and studying for some important test or practical session that was scheduled for next week. Said she wanted to be fully prepared for it just in case our little distracter was going to make her appearance, that could literally be any day now, as Nat was already nine months. We were still referring to the baby as our little distracter because Nat didn't want to know the gender and I was also not allowed to know as I wouldn't be able to keep it a secret.We really have had our fair share of scares with some Braxton hicks contractions and slight spotting. Permanently, now had the hospital bags in the car and made sure that they were there whenever we went anywhere. We have turned my room and some of the spare space in the flat into a baby room and moved the cot and such into our room that we are now sharing. Nat and I had decided together that we wou