It's an ordinary day for Veronica. She stands in the kitchen with her six month old son in her arms, cooking dinner for her and her husband. He will be home from work any minute now.
She's the CEO of Lodge industries. Her dad passed it on to her last year. Now she can work from home and spend as much time with her son as she wants.
Her son turns his head when he hears the front door opening.
"Seems like daddy is home"
The little boy giggles, which makes Veronica laugh too. Her smile disappears quickly though when she sees the look on her husband's face. He seems sad. His eyes are red, like he cried. He places a plastic bag from their favorite bakery on the kitchen counter and wraps his arms around Veronica's waist. "Hi baby" he smiles before he kisses his wife. Veronica can taste the saltiness of tears. He definitely cried.
Archie kisses his sons head a couple of times before he looks at Veronica.
"What happened Archie?"
"Just had a bad day"
"Strawberry pie?" she asks and points to the plastic bag. Archie nods in response.
"It's not her birthday though or did I forget-"
"No it's not" he smiles sadly "I just felt like it"
"You wanna talk about it love?" Veronica asks as she wipes a tear out of her husband's face.
"Later" He kisses her again before he takes his son into his arms and walks to the living room.
Archie started dating this first girlfriend, Isabelle when he was 15. They were happy. Everything changed though when Isabelle got pregnant at 17. Archie was all in from the very first second. He wanted to be a dad but it was Isabelle's decision. After a few weeks she decided to keep the child so nine months later they became parents of a little girl. They named her Gianna. She looked a lot like Archie. Red hair, hazel brown eyes and freckles. Her smile was pure and her heart made of gold. Archie loved her more than anything else in the world. She was his everything. As much as Isabelle hated to admit it, her daughter was a daddy's girl.
But over the years Archie and Isabelle drifted apart. It was like their loved just vanished. They stayed together though, for Gianna's sake. Archie always dreamed of the perfect family but when Gianna was five years old that got destroyed. He found out Isabelle was cheating on him for months. He couldn't ignore that so he broke up with her and moved back to his childhood home where is mom still lived. Gianna stayed with Isabelle. A child belongs with its mom. That's best, right?
After a few months Mary moved out so Archie could have the house to himself and his future family. He still saw Gianna regularly, at least once a week. She often stayed overnight and even had her own room in Archie's house. Nothing could break their bond.
Their were best friends until one day in summer. Gianna was almost ten years old when she decided she never wanted to see him again. No explanation, she just disappeared.
Archie tried to reach out to her a dozen of times but Isabelle blocked all kind of communication between him and his daughter. When they moved away she was gone for good. Archie was sure Isabelle told Gianna something about him that was not true. He knew she told her some sick lie to keep her away from him.
Over the years she got more and more jealous of Archie and his relationship with Gianna.
When Archie's light left his life he was left in the dark with no love, energy or happiness. He didn't see the point in staying alive anymore. Just when he was about to give up, a little over a year after everything happened, he met Veronica. Her smile and her love brought back the light in his life, in his heart. He fell for her quickly and pretty hard. He knew from the very first second that she's the one. There was just one time in life before where he was so sure of love, when he met his daughter.
He and Veronica married when she was 5 months pregnant, after two and half years of dating.
