Strictly Professional

70: The Happiest

EPILOGUE

ELLE
Lover-Niall Horan, Fletcher

My mother used to always tell me, keep your friends close and your enemies closer, but she failed to clarify one thing. What if the person I thought was my enemy never really was that? What if the one person I once swore to never let anywhere near me turned out to be the best thing that could ever happen to me? What should I have done then, mother? Should I have kept him at a distance, and risk never getting to know who he really was under that pesky, arrogant millionaire he initially showed himself to be?

Because if I had done that, I would've never realised I'd be giving up the love of my life. I would've never realised I'd be giving up the family I built with him over the years, the unconditional love I was able to give and receive.

I kept reminding myself how lucky I was to have all that every single day, but especially during hard and stressful times. When Stella was teething and wouldn't stop wailing all night long, when we first brought the twins to the house and were still trying to adapt to having three kids, when we had to figure out how to communicate with Kienam until he was old enough to get his first hearing aid.

And I forced myself to remember all the good times whenever Niall and I would inevitably find ourselves facing a disagreement. They would sometimes lead to us fighting, which no matter how draining, was only natural. We'd never let the kids hear any of it, not wanting them to worry. And we would always try to resolve our issues and make up within the same day. It wasn't always an easy task, especially at the start of our parenthood. The first year we had the twins was definitely the most challenging for us as parents, as well as the most hard on our marriage.

We went through a rocky phase for a couple of months. With my company taking off, things ended up being a lot more difficult than either of us could have anticipated. I was drowning in work, ending up coming home late at night on multiple occasions. That was definitely hard on Niall too, who had to be the only one caring for our children during the day since they'd already be in bed when I'd get back. He could handle Stella just fine when it was just her, but the addition of two toddles was definitely a lot for one person. And I hated that I couldn't be there to help him, that I couldn't spend time with my family apart for weekends. and it was draining for the both of us, both physically and emotionally. It was the root of our problems, our constant fights caused by built up stress and tension.

But as our kids grew up, we grew up. It took us quite some time, but by making compromises and making sure to communicate instead of closing ourselves off, we slowly figured it out. We stopped focusing on the problems and instead put our attention to finding solutions. I started forcing myself to leave the office at a reasonable hour, hiring more help to be able to do that. I stopped answering work calls during the weekends, focusing solely on my family. On his end, Niall stopped pretending he had everything under control and accepted the help of whoever was available, whether that would be one of our mothers, Anna or even Bri, who all ended up coming over to help or staying to babysit at least once. Niall and I were able to have some time to our family, as well as ourselves as a couple. We slowly rediscovered our passion just when I thought we had lost it, even going as far as fearing divorce during our worst days. But we made it through, and that made all the struggles and sleepless nights trying to work things out worth it.

Now, with our daughter growing closer to becoming an adult and our two sons just entering their early teens, our marriage was stronger than ever. The kids were independent on a lot of aspects, and that allowed Niall to go back to coaching a couple years back. I had found a healthier work schedule, deciding to dedicate a few hours of my weekend to work from home to allow me the time to leave earlier on weekdays. I'd drop off the kids at school in the morning, Niall would pick them up. I'd always make sure to be home in time for dinner, and we'd all go out to do something fun at least once a week. And recently, with Stella being able to look after the twins for a few hours, Niall and I made a deal to have a date night every Friday night.