Marrying a Boxer | H.S.

Chapter 67

The day has finally come. The wedding is tomorrow. I feel excited and nervous. My mother and sister will be coming over later today to make sure Harry and I don't see each other before the wedding. I don't think that's necessary, but they insist on following this tradition. However, Harry and I have spent most of the day together, making calls to be sure everything is ready for tomorrow. From the caterers to the priest. The garden looks absolutely beautiful and if I'm being honest, I cannot wait to walk down the aisle and say, "I do".

"Sweetheart?" Harry pokes his head through the library's door.

"Yes?"

"Are you done with your phone calls?" he asks, nervously.

I nod and walk over to him. "What's wrong?"

He takes a deep breath and lets it out, puffing out his cheeks. "I want to talk to you." My face falls and my heart starts racing. "It's nothing bad, don't worry."

"Oh, thank god. What is it, love?" he takes my hand and leads me up to the bedroom.Harry tells me to sit on the bed and disappears inside the closet. I hear him moving things, but decide to wait for him instead of walking after him. A few minutes later, he comes back with a shoebox in his hands. A shoebox that I've seen before and unfortunately does not bring back good memories.

"I know that the last time we both saw this box things went from bad to worse," he says, scratching the back of his neck and sitting next to me. "I am deeply sorry," his voice is quiet and he's looking down at his hands.

I lay my head on his shoulder and sigh. "I forgave you a while ago, you know?"

"I know and I don't understand why, but I'm eternally grateful, babes." He kisses the top of my head, making me smile. "I was debating if this was a good idea, but I feel like a need to share this with you. Tomorrow we start a new chapter of our lives and I really want you to know everything about me. And since you came with me to the cemetery the other day, I thought it was time to share."

He places the box on my lap and fidgets with his fingers. I look at him, silently asking permission to open it. He nods and I carefully lift the lid. The letters and photos are all there, just like I remember. I did read about half of the letters and saw a couple of photos.

"I met Leila when I was about twelve or thirteen. We went to school together and one of our teachers' assigned partners for a project. We got assigned together and I remember being really happy because I really liked her. And from that day on, we started talking more and more. We became close friends at first. I would talk to her about everything. We would help each other out, listen to each other, call each other out on our bullshit, etcetera. One day, I finally got the guts to tell her I fancied her and I asked her if she wanted to be my girlfriend. We dated for a long time, about three years. One day, she came over to my house, and she got a text message from this one guy that I knew wanted to take her from me. I read the text and he was blatantly flirting with her. You know I'm not good at containing my anger or my jealousy, so I exploded. And I accused her of cheating on me and I said many things that I shouldn't have said. I didn't let her explain anything. I made her cry and told her to leave. It had been raining pretty hard that day and it was dark outside when she left. The next day, I found out that she had been in a car wreck and that she had died." He stops for a moment and swallows hard. "I could never shake the feeling that it had been my fault, you know? I almost went crazy thinking about all the things I could've done differently. I had so much anger inside me, it was consuming me little by little. I was angry at the world, at God, at myself more than anything. So, I turned to boxing," he shrugs. "It helped me to release the anger I was feeling but it was never fully out. I would still feel angry. I made a promise to myself that I would never fall in love again because there was no point. Because there was a chance of the story repeating itself. I wasn't prepared to go through the same heartache again. And then all of a sudden, you came along. And I was angry all over again because we were being forced into marriage and we didn't know each other. I know our first year of marriage was mostly shitty and I was the biggest asshole in the universe, but even though we fought a lot, I started falling in love with you. And it scared me. I tried to fight my feelings for you and that's also why I acted the way I did, but that's not an excuse. I kept fighting my feelings for you until... until that night I almost lost you. You have no idea how much I prayed to god to keep you alive and I promised him that I would change my ways. I prayed day and night. It felt wrong and right at the same time. I had not prayed in forever. I don't know what I would've done with myself if I had lost you, Sweetheart." His voice breaks and I look at him and see tears slowly rolling down his cheeks. His red eyes keep letting more and more tears fall.

I don't think I've ever seen Harry express this much emotion. I've seen him tear up before, I saw him cry a few times in secret when we lost our baby, but this is different. This is him opening up about his fears and his past that has been kept a secret from me. A past that tore him apart and turned him into a cold young man afraid to let people in.

I place the box beside me and grab his face, pressing my lips to his. I softly wipe away his tears with my thumbs and look into his eyes. I know that he has made a great effort to open up and share this with me and it means the world to me. "Thank you for sharing this with me, Curly. I love you so much." He pulls me onto his lap, wrapping his arms around me. I rest my head on his shoulder and feel him press a kiss on the top of my head.

"Thank you for listening to me, darling. I love you with all my heart."

We stay in that position for a while before I start looking through the box, taking a good look at all the items inside. Harry reads me some of the letters he wrote for Leila and I read some more. He also tells me the story behind little items like bracelets and necklaces inside the box. He tells me about a bracelet that he bought her in Portobello Market when they first started dating and another bracelet he made her using Gemma's beads.

Every little item in there had a backstory and I loved hearing about them. it gave me an insight into Harry's teenage self.

"Scarlet!" I hear Moni's voice call for me and I groan.

"I want to keep hearing more about this," I pout, making Harry chuckle.

"Well, this is pretty much everything to the story, Sweetheart. But we have the rest of our lives for more stories."

The door to our bedroom bursts open and Moni throws us a death glare. "You are not supposed to see each other before the wedding!" she rushes to me and starts pulling me away from Harry.

"It's a stupid rule! We're already married!" she grabs my ankles and drags me down. "Wait! Let me just say goodbye, dammit!" she groans and lifts her index finger, telling me I only have one minute, before storming out of the room.

Harry's face turns red as he laughs. I crawl back up the bed and kiss him. "I love you, Curly.

"I love you more, Sweetheart. Now go meet your sister before she comes back and breaks down our door." He caresses my cheek before I make my way to the door.

"I'll meet you at the altar," I say, turning to look at him.

"I'll be the handsome lad in a Gucci tux," he winks.

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A/N: Hola my peasants ❤️

I know it's been a while but I started college again and it's been kicking my ass 😩

Here I leave you with Chapter 67, I hope you all like it. Thank you so much for the continuous support!

I love y'all so much.

Kissy 💋

~Amy 💕