We were married at City Hall. She was beautiful. I was a mess. I wanted to cry but instead, I smiled knowing that the vision of beauty in front of me would be my wife.
"Shawn, you are the one I never saw coming. One look at you and I should have known you'd be important to me. When we met, I thought I had it all figured out. I thought I knew just what I wanted but I didn't know myself at all. You taught me how to love. You taught me that second chances are everything and you, are my first, second and forever chance at love. I've waited forever for you.. and when I lost you, I thought that was it. We were meant to fall in love, we were made to break, and we were made to fall back together."
"Camila, you are the fiercest woman I know. You stop at nothing and you ask permission from no one to follow your heart and get what you deserve. I knew the moment we met, I was done for and I knew the moment we fell apart, that I would never love again the way I loved you. I know it's taken us far too long, but I don't want to spend another minute on this earth not married to you. I love you with everything I am and everything I'm not. We're not perfect, but I don't want us to be. I like us just the way we are and the way we are, is everything. I love you."
We were learning to love all over again and everyday with her was an adventure. Our honeymoon in The Bahamas was everything I'd ever imagined it to be. It was heaven on earth and I kept feeling like I needed to be pinched.
When we welcomed our daughter, Willa into the world, she was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen and I didn't think it was possible to fall in love all over again.
Camila was obsessed and rightfully so. Willa was was the best baby on earth. My parents were absolutely obsessed with her and it was impossible not to be.
3 months after Willa was born, Camila won a national award for Neurosurgery and we traveled to Chicago to accept.
Our house on Cornelia Street was a place to make memories.There we raised our baby with so much love. Camila was an amazing mother and I laughed when Willa was 8 months old and Camila got her a soft model of a brain. She mostly put it in her mouth, as babies do with all things and I laughed. "What, you can never start too young, right?" Camila pointed and I laughed. Our baby was bound for greatness, I knew it.
Camila took a sabbatical for 3 years to raise Willa. "I want to be here when she grows up. I don't want to miss it," she insisted. Taking a break at the height of her accomplishment and success was unheard of but it was something Camila was adamant about. Camila kept her skills sharp, writing research papers, meeting with people in different countries via Zoom, consulting here and there, and honing her craft, while we raised our daughter.
When Willa was 4 she went to pre-school and Camila's first day back in the operating room I could tell, made her the happiest she'd ever been. Aaliyah, Hailee and, Sofia were still together and they worked, against all reason they worked. They were amazing aunts to Willa and she was so spoiled. Camila and I agreed that Willa was enough for us and that our family would be a family of 3.
When Willa started kindergarten she told anyone who would listen that she was going to be a doctor like her mother. Hearing her try to pronounce neurosurgeon was pure comedy and so endearing.
And so she was. We were there when she graduated medical school and we were there when she got a residency at the top hospital in the country. A hospital, I might add, that had been asking for a Cabello for years. They didn't know it would be Willa, as they'd asked for Camila.
Eventually, being so far apart from us was hard on her and Camila transferred to the same research hospital. We couldn't bear to sell our house on Cornelia street where we'd made so many memories so instead, Aaliyah, Sofia, and Hailee moved in.
I got to sit in the gallery the first time Willa and Camila did a surgery. Seeing the two of them in the operating room for the first time was a dream come true for both of them and a sight to see. Willa swore she'd never be as good as Camila, but Camila didn't believe it for a second. "You're it babygirl..." she'd say, remembering how she'd once compared herself to her mother.
I wrote two more books that all landed on the bestseller list and together we lived a life I never knew was possible with more love than one could imagine.
Camila was right. We were made to break, but we were always made back to fall together and as much as losing her the first time broke my heart, every moment with her afterwards, healed me in more ways than one.
"You're so lucky I found you," I'd joke.
"You ran into me.... difference" she laughed, never letting me forget how a chance run in, in a busy New York City sidewalk brought us back together. "But... I'm so glad you did.."
And I was so glad I had, because after all these years, my heart still beat for her. After all these years, we were here, together, and we were beautiful.
Author's note: Epilogues make me so happy and sad. I'm EMOSHAWNAL! As always, thank you for sticking with me on this journey and thank you for reading.
