What We Once Were

Chapter 42 (FINAL CHAPTER)

Thank you all for 23k reads 💕

1 year later

Veronica's POV

The sun shines in the light of my bedroom and warms my face. I take a deep breath and stretch my legs out, then suddenly I feel a strong arm wrap around my waist and pull me closer into his chest. "Hmmm" he sighs into my hair, making me laugh. I roll over and put my hand along his jawline, looking at him until his eyes flutter open. "How long have you been staring at me" he asks with a light laugh. "Like 30 seconds" I say laughing. "That's creepy, babe" he says while rubbing his eyes. "No it's romantic" I argue. He smirks and kisses my forehead softly, "happy anniversary by the way" he says, his voice deep and sleepy. "Ah you remembered" I say jokingly. He rolls his eyes "did you really think I wouldn't?" He asks. I laugh "I wasn't sure. We didn't talk about it" I say while readjusting and putting my head on his chest. "That's true but I did remember because one year ago today, I married the hottest mom in the world" he says. I laugh "Yeah well if you want to be a hot mom to an 11 year old you just have her when you're 16" I say. He laughs, "don't ever give that advice to our children" he says. I look up at him, "children... like more?" I ask him. He looks at me with confusion, "well- yeah. I mean I didn't get to do all that stuff with Reign and I just assumed you wanted more kids" he says. I smile and sit up, resting my chin on my hands that are folded on his chest. "I do. Let's have like, oh I don't know, 5 more" I say. He widens his eyes at me "5? We're growing our family Ronnie, not trying to start our own baseball team" he jokes. I laugh, "Okay fine. How many do you want?" I ask. He takes a deep breath and looks up to the ceiling, "hmmm.... how about we have kids until we can give Reign a sister?" He asks. I raise my eyebrow at him questionably, "isn't that a risky bet?" I ask. He smirks, "are you scared?" He asks mockingly. I roll my eyes, "Nope. Game on, Andrews."

5 years later

"I can't believe I let you talk me into this" I groan while going through another contraction. "You said game on" Archie states as I squeeze his hand. "Shut up" I snap as I lay back on my pillow. Archie and I agreed to keep having kids until we had a girl, and right now I'm giving birth to our 4th kid. Each time I got pregnant with our 2 boys we waited till they were born to find out the gender, it became a little game that we played. Now we have Reign, who is 16, Evan, who is 4, and Samuel, who is 2. If this baby isn't a girl I may have to call it quits on this sick game, a woman can only look so hot after having 4 kids. "Okay Veronica it's time to push" the nurse says cheerfully. I can bet everything good I have that if she had to push an 8 pound baby out of her body, she wouldn't sound as cheery. "If this one isn't a girl, we'll just buy a girl puppy" I groan at Archie as I sit up to push. "Deal" he laughs, kissing my temple. "Okay 3... 2... 1... Push!"

A loud cry fills the room and I exhale deeply. The hardest part is finally over. "Congratulations you two! You have a healthy baby girl!" The nurse says, holding her up for us to see her. "Oh thank god" I sigh, laying my head back on the pillow. "Babe, we have another girl" Archie says, planting a kiss on my shoulder. I sit up and look at him, small tears falling from my eyes. Tears brim his eyes and I put my hand on his face and pull him up to kiss me. "I love you, and our bunch of children" I joke. He laughs and glances up at the nurse who finally brings our daughter over. "Here you go, Mommy" she says while handing me my now clean baby girl. I sit back up and take her in my arms, letting the nurse walk out of the delivery room. "Hey baby girl" I coo, leaning down to kiss her forehead. "We need to pick a name for her" Archie says while letting her grab onto his finger. I stare at her eyes that have just fluttered open and I smile, "she reminds me of Reign. It's like Deja vu" I whisper. "Well we can't name her Reign so" he says and I roll my eyes. "I know" I start, "how about Isabelle?" I ask, glancing over at Archie. "Isabelle Grace Andrews?" Archie asks, suggesting a middle name. I smile at him "it's perfect. She's perfect" I say, looking back at our baby. "Hi Isabelle. Mommy and daddy have been waiting so long for another little girl. Your big sister will be so happy" I say softly, planting another kiss on her face. "Go get Betty, Jughead and the kids" I say to Archie. He smiles and kisses Isabelle, and then kisses me. "I'll be back. Don't do anything cute while I'm gone" he says while standing up, "that applies to you too Isabelle" he adds. I laugh and look back down at our new little bundle of joy.

Archie's POV

I walk out of Ronnie's delivery room, but I stay by the door and look through the window. She's looking down at Isabelle with a smile on her face, and it looks like she's talking to her. I smile and lean against the wall, still able to see her. How did I get this lucky? First cheating on her, then her getting pregnant and marrying another guy, I was positive I lost her for good. But now, 17 years and 4 kids later, we're better now than we ever were. With each day that goes by I remind myself of what we once were, and how lucky I am for what we are now.

Well this story was quite a process! Thank you to all of my readers who stuck around while I went almost a month without updating 😂 Keep your eyes open for my next book! It's coming soon ;)