Lily and Mark had a small simple wedding at a garden venue. Angel convinced her to let her apply light makeup for the occasion with the rationalization that she would only be getting married once. It did make her stand out in the pictures so she supposed that was something.All of their friends and her family were there to support them. Aria was the most adorable flower girl ever and her nephew Hunter was the ring bearer. Angel was the matron of honor and Randi and Genevieve were her other bridesmaids. Mark’s best man was Eddie and two of his bowling friends rounded out the wedding party.They went on their honeymoon to Hawaii where they took another submarine tour and hiked what felt like every inch of the island of Maui. Lily was happy but exhausted by the time they got home.Despite experiencing a major life event, not much changed in terms of work or their general schedules for another year when she got pregnant with their son Damien. Her job was kind enough to let her take a year-
Everyone always told Lily Bennett not to go check out the tide pools by herself. Her professors did. Her overprotective family members did. Her friends did. But she hated being held back by her illness so that particular day she threw caution to the wind.Being a highly independent person was difficult when you had epilepsy. For about a year and a half, her seizures had been too active so her driver’s license was suspended until she did a whole lot of paperwork and proved her doctor said she was okay to drive again. That had been awful. She only got it back six months ago.But there hadn’t been a single seizure since then. Her medication kept things stable. That was why she felt confident enough to go out to the tide pools alone today.The people in her life were concerned that if Lily ever went to the beach by herself and had a seizure she might drown. She was a marine biology student! Sometimes she had to go to the beach when she couldn’t get anyone to go with her.Assigning a repor
They had shared a P.E. class when Lily was a freshman and Mark was a senior. During the gymnastics unit she did a cartwheel and her glasses slid right off her face. They were the kind of thick black frames commonly referred to as ‘hipster glasses.’A lot of the boys catcalled her. One was particularly brave (or was it stupid?) and called out to her directly. “What are you hiding behind those clunkers for? You look better without your glasses!”Lily, who had put her glasses back on by then, took them off and squinted at him before delivering a scorching burn. “What do you know? You look better without my glasses too.”Everyone in the class went “ooooh” and the boy that dared mess with her turned beet red and tried to explain himself. “I didn’t mean anything weird by it!”She raised an eyebrow. “Oh? I think you did. I think you believe in the outdated notion than women have to conform to men’s beauty standards to get by in this world. Let me tell you something; I can’t wear contacts bec
Her head was fuzzy but she could feel someone holding her hand and hear someone trying to talk to her. Where was she? What happened? She couldn’t remember anything.Opening her eyes took tremendous effort and a very handsome, very blurry man appeared in front of her. She squinted trying to get a better look. He had chiseled features and dark hair with hazel eyes that were filled with worry despite his blank expression.“Angel? Are you alright?” the man asked in as casual a manner as possible considering he was gripping her hand rather tightly.“Who…who are you?” she asked.His face fell. “You’re messing with me, right? This isn’t funny. You know me…you have to know me. I’m Eddie, though you’re the only one that has ever called me that. Your fiancé.”Her fiancé? She had a fiancé? So he knew who she was then, right. “If you’re my fiancé then who am I? What happened to me?”“You’re scaring me. You’re Angel—Angelina Dawson. How hard did you hit your head? They found you at the beach; what
Nothing Eddie said was ringing any bells aside from having epilepsy. Somehow that seemed familiar to Angel.Still, she listened to him intently for hours in a state of disbelief but eventually he had to leave. “I need to go check in on Aria. I’ll be back first thing in the morning to take you home. Is there anything you want me to bring you?”Angel couldn’t think of anything. Her vision was blurry but she didn’t realize that was already a problem before she hit her head. She thought it was the result of her injury. So she sent him off to take care of their daughter.Eddie hesitated a moment before giving her a short but tender kiss on the forehead, scurrying away before she could say anything in response. She frowned at his retreating back. Isn’t kissing normal between fiancés? What sort of relationship did they normally have?He seemed nice enough, if a bit distant. She got the feeling he didn’t know how to properly express himself but cared a lot. If she didn’t normally understand t
Aria continued happily babbling about something Angel couldn’t quite decipher as she snuggled up against her and Eddie watched the two of them with a slight smile on his face. This was so strange. So foreign. Shouldn’t being home have triggered some of her memories by now?She didn’t recognize this adorable little girl or the man fondly watching over them. Now that she had her glasses on and could look around the room, none of this opulence looked familiar either.Her bedroom was huge. There were beauty products scattered all over the vanity and the bed could fit four people easily but there was still tons of space in the room itself.It was decorated in a rather feminine manner and she couldn’t help but wonder if Eddie stayed in this room too or somewhere else. There was only one dresser. Once again she found herself questioning the sort of relationship they had.A knock sounded on the door and Angel looked up to see a man with light brown hair, blue eyes, and more delicate features
“You’re wrong,” Angel said firmly. “I’m not afraid of the ocean.”Hearing the ocean mentioned brought something back to her. Longing. Familiarity. She had the thought that it was only natural they found her on a beach because she spent a lot of time there.But how would she know that when she couldn’t remember anything else? Her confusion grew worse despite the clarity of that one piece of information. The ocean was important to her.Eddie frowned. “Angel…you’re confused. The whole time we’ve been together, you haven’t stepped foot on a beach. You said it brought back bad memories. You won’t go on boats either, even if there are dinner parties on them that you need to attend for your career.”“You’re wrong!” she insisted. “I love the ocean. I was doing something at the beach…I know I was. Something important.”The doctor looked back and forth between the two of them before addressing Angel. “What were you doing that was so important? Do you remember?”She strained trying to think of i
Edward Todd was getting more and more confused. The DNA report that he got Dr. Anderson to put a rush on had been emailed over to him and the evidence was conclusive.The amnesiac currently on Angel’s bed shared 50% of Aria’s DNA. Only he and her mother were capable of showing such a result on this kind of test. Yet he remained uneasy. The amnesia was bad enough but acting like a completely different person when confronted with the ocean was even worse.With amnesia alone, she would come back to him eventually. All it would take was patience and constant reminders of the familiar. But if her personality had changed, he was dealing with a wild card.A terrible part of him wondered if he could take advantage of her amnesia and personality changes to improve their relationship. He knew Angel didn’t love him. He had ruined her life, after all, even if it was an accident.They met when he was twenty-six and disillusioned about the world. His parents had never cared about him beyond what he
Lily and Mark had a small simple wedding at a garden venue. Angel convinced her to let her apply light makeup for the occasion with the rationalization that she would only be getting married once. It did make her stand out in the pictures so she supposed that was something.All of their friends and her family were there to support them. Aria was the most adorable flower girl ever and her nephew Hunter was the ring bearer. Angel was the matron of honor and Randi and Genevieve were her other bridesmaids. Mark’s best man was Eddie and two of his bowling friends rounded out the wedding party.They went on their honeymoon to Hawaii where they took another submarine tour and hiked what felt like every inch of the island of Maui. Lily was happy but exhausted by the time they got home.Despite experiencing a major life event, not much changed in terms of work or their general schedules for another year when she got pregnant with their son Damien. Her job was kind enough to let her take a year-
Lily inhaled deeply and let the smell of the salty air soak into her soul. It was impossible to worry about anything right now when she was this relaxed.“You certainly seem happy,” Mark noted with a smile as they bobbed in the water.“I am. No one ever wants to go swimming with me. Thanks, Mark. Today has been wonderful and it’s not even over yet. You spoil me too much.”“There’s nothing wrong with a little spoiling.”Lily knew it was pointless arguing with him so she let it go and closed her eyes as she floated there. The ocean was oddly tranquil today. There were hardly any waves at all, which was perfect for swimming.She wasn’t sure how long they stayed in the water like that enjoying the quiet and each other’s company but, eventually, they headed back to shore. He read a book on a towel while she took a nap and let the sun soak into her soul.When she woke up, she felt more at peace than she had in ages. Her boyfriend had planned the perfect day for her. At times like this, it w
Lily’s ongoing struggle trying to be okay with Mark not wanting to move forward in their relationship became more difficult as time went on. On the rare occasions she tried to bring it up, he would quickly change the subject so she gave up after a while.That wasn’t like her. She was so frustrated she was ready to blow a gasket but didn’t want them to fight.So she ambled along expecting nothing knowing that was all she was going to get. It didn’t help that Angel was pregnant with her second child and very excited about the fact. She would be having a boy this time and she and Eddie had already decided to name him Eli.Aria had hoped for a sister but was still looking forward to having a baby to play with even if it was a boy. She was a good kid and Lily had no doubt she would be a great big sister.As much as she looked forward to meeting her new nephew, it got her wondering if she would ever be able to have a child of her own. Her twenty-fifth birthday passed recently and Mark still
Patience wasn’t Lily’s strong suit. Mark hoped Donovan got back to her quickly because he didn’t want to prolong this more than necessary. Mark didn’t want to ruin the surprise either though. If she knew what he was planning in advance, she might get suspicious.Thankfully, Donovan’s family was available two weeks from then. And so were two spots for what Mark was planning to take Lily to do. He booked the tickets immediately so now all he could do was wait.He already knew his girlfriend would accept his proposal but he was still anxious. Who wouldn’t be asking such a loaded question to the person that mattered to them most?At least she didn’t seem to have caught on yet. She chatted normally on their longer-than-expected drive down to L.A. due to traffic. They didn’t arrive until nearly 2 AM so it was a good thing Eileen told them where the spare key was kept in advance so they could let themselves in.An air mattress had already been set up for them. All they had to do was flop ont
Talking to Angelina about her seizure frequency being pregnant only made Mark feel worse because he knew Lily wanted multiple kids. She would be putting herself at risk more than once and he wasn’t sure he would be able to live with the anxiety. As it was, he wasn’t sure how Edward was able to do it.Maybe that was who he needed to talk to in order to ease his fears. Someone who had been in the position he would potentially find himself in twice.Mark knew that it wasn’t fair to leave Lily hanging forever. He wanted to spend his life with her, he truly did, but he needed to get his fears under control first.“How do you handle knowing your wife could have a seizure any time?” he blurted when he and Edward were in the car on their way to a meeting the day after his conversation with Angelina.He didn’t seem terribly surprised by the question. It seemed that she had told him what they talked about yesterday. “I don’t know. I guess I’m used to it by now. She did have one within five minu
They exchanged numbers and Angelina excused herself to get back to work. She should be able to focus now that she had gotten a bit of a break. It was nice knowing that at least one of her former associates was doing well these days. She hoped they were all able to find things that made them happy the way she had.Mark didn’t even look up when she came back in. He was that focused on his work. She wasn’t able to catch his attention at all until she called his name three times after finishing what she needed.“Sorry, I was in the zone. Are you ready to go?” he asked sheepishly.“Yeah. Thanks for sticking around.”Angelina felt a bit guilty to be inconveniencing him like this but at least he already knew Eddie was a worrywart when it came to her. That was why he wasn’t letting her drive on her own.He didn’t say anything until they were nearly back at her house. “Hey…um…do you always have seizures when you’re pregnant?”That was completely out of the blue. Why would he ask about that?“T
Over time, Taylored’s customer base did grow, if not as quickly as the owners wanted it to. Genevieve and Lita got a huge order to make costumes for a local theater company’s production of The Music Man and that kept them pretty busy for a while but that wasn’t the only big thing happening.After a few months of actively trying, Angelina found herself pregnant again. It was a much happier experience this time and everyone was excited about it. Particularly Aria. She was thrilled at the prospect of having a little brother or sister because a lot of her friends had them.She asked a million and one questions about what she dubbed “our baby.” It was adorable.Though her emotional state was much better, things weren’t too different physically than they had been with Aria because she had to change her medication again and that took getting used to. At least she was planning on it in advance this time and did it before getting pregnant rather than after.She was fairly miserable but hated b
Angelina had been rather busy preparing herself for the grand opening of their shop Taylored and didn’t notice her twin’s distress. Lita’s son was named Taylor so it was a sort of play on his name and the fact that they were tailors on top of designing custom clothes.By the time Genevieve graduated, everything was just about ready to go. Their grand opening was the week after and they had already gotten an impressive amount of advertising done so there should be a decent turnout. It didn’t hurt that they had a great location where they should get a lot of traffic.Having a real estate mogul for a husband could be surprisingly helpful. Before this, she never thought she would utilize his skills for finding great locations.Angelina went to the grand opening for a while since Aria was playing with Emma. Preschool was out for the summer and she missed her friends already. She was such a social little thing.She thought it went pretty well, all things considered. A lot of people came in
Genevieve caught a real break when Angel met Lita. She never would have suggested going into business otherwise but the three of them got on like a house on fire.Lily had been surprised to say the least and asked her twin about it. She smiled softly as she explained that all she ever wanted was to make a difference for people like her and this gave her the chance to do so without taking her away from her family for long stretches of time unlike her original dream.She certainly seemed excited about it. Talking about her potential business venture made her much more enthusiastic than usual. It was cute.Angel had made her own friends too in the various clubs and classes she had joined trying to figure out what she wanted to do so she joined Lily’s friends maybe once a month these days. Lily was happy for her. She deserved to have a life of her own after living someone else’s dreams for so long.Lily looked forward to seeing where this clothing business went. She had already commission